


Hacking Life

by GalaxyKitty



Category: Janti - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hackers, Anti purrs, Bubbles - Freeform, Cute, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Hugs, I call Anti a Coded Being, Jack falls in love with a coded being, M/M, Protective Anti is protective, Sexual Content, Sleepy Cuddles, Smut, Tags will be added, Undercover Missions, hacking and agent work, imagine Iron Man's tech
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-21 04:23:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 57,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14908268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyKitty/pseuds/GalaxyKitty
Summary: Jack is a hacker/undercover agent working for a secret organization, but although there are other associates working there, Jack prefers to work alone.Well, he preferred to work alone until his hacking somehow led him to come in contact with a strange being that seemed to come from inside technology itself.A made-up AU fanfic with no connection to the real people.





	1. 4271

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just made this up this morning and typed this out, I don't even know what I'm doing.
> 
> Someone please save me.

Jack was sitting at one of the cool black tables, legs crossed, head resting lazily on one of his hands, in the organization’s headquarters located underground and off the radar. He worked for an intelligence and protection agency simply known as Eclipse that did undercover quests, bodyguard missions, and occasional hitman work if required.

Whenever someone was hired for Eclipse, they practically disappeared off of the map, no longer in contact with friends or family, records of their previous life were destroyed, and they were given fake IDs to navigate “above ground”. They practically lived in the underground base unless they had a mission that required them to have a hotel or were playing a role that required them to live in a fake house to trick their targets.

Jack has always been a hacker, finding the world of code and the vastness of the online life intriguing, and often hacked into high security organizations just because he could, just to see if anyone would ever get close to catching him. That’s how he was noticed from Eclipse and someone was sent to “deal with” him after getting too close to hacking into their own computers, but he managed to impress the agent with his skills and was offered a job. He was pretty reclusive, so he didn’t hesitate when the agent said he would be living his hacking dreams but he would have to leave his normal life behind.

He went through the Eclipse training faster than normal, not only mastering their technology, but mastering the art of undercover jobs and agent work as well, and was quickly sent on his mission along with two other agents, Mark and Felix.

Unlike him, Mark focused mainly on the outside work, a master of disguise and hiding his true face, faking his way into his target’s trust to get whatever information or object that their job required while Felix stayed behind as the guy in the chair, focusing more on the hacking part of the job and sitting in a room with monitors on every wall with documents everywhere.

It wasn’t that Jack didn’t appreciate their company, it was nice since the only people he could be “real” with and be friends with are those in Eclipse with him, but he just didn’t like needing to keep half of his attention on others. They always had to make plans that would work with all three of them, Felix always switched between the two of them during the mission, Jack always had to wait until he got the okay from Mark when they were on the field together to make sure they were on the same page and didn’t mess up the flow of work, and sometimes the two of their work styles just didn’t match with Jack’s all the way.

So, Jack preferred to work alone. He had special tech hidden on his person and had glasses that had an overlay of information like the map of his location or dots of those who Jack put a tracking device on or updates on his current mission. He had a bracelet that had a compartment for a USB stick whenever he needed to extract information and place a virus, then another bracelet that had small energy orbs that could act as tiny bombs to break whatever he needed to get past. Then, on his left arm, he had the Eclipse standard cuff on his forearm that could bring up a hologram touchscreen with additional information that he could use whenever he didn’t have to hide it with and use his glasses. He had a belt that Mark and Felix always joked about being Batman’s utility belt, to which Jack scoffed and said Batman wished he had this belt.

Jack was still sitting at the table, lost in thoughts, when he heard a clanking sound that brought him out of it.

Mark and Felix both set down a tray that had the groups provided dinner for the day and scooted over to him.

“Hey, I don’t see any food in front of you, did ya already eat?” Mark smiled.

“Or did you have another crummy granola bar and pretend you did.” Felix quirked an eyebrow.

“I ate.” Jack sighed.

“Ate a granola bar?” Felix pushed.

“No, I ate actual food, Fe.” Jack rolled his eyes.

“Aw, c’mon Jacky, we’re just worried about you, that’s all.” Mark hummed.

“You shouldn’t be.” Jack said flatly.

“We’re your friends, so we should be and we are.” Felix nudged his shoulder. “Without us, you’d be a loner, so we’re going to make sure you don’t go insane.”

Jack just let out a sigh and tried to ignore them.

“I think you should find someone to be with.” Mark added. “We all do.”

“I’ve heard that the girl from team management has an eye on you.” Felix winked to Jack. “And she’s a looker, eeeh?”

“Felix, just stop, I am not looking for a relationship and certainly not one with your input.”

“Boo, Jack, such a party pooper.”

Jack sighed again and was about to get up to leave when he got a message from his phone. He checked the text before bringing his left arm in front of himself and clicking the button to let the holographic screen appear in front of him. Felix and Mark scooted over to see as well, knowing that Jack got a new mission.

_\- New Mission: Code Grey_

_Objective: Infiltrate/Disguise, Hack_

_Info: Organization known for illegal information distribution. A gathering is currently being held by the organization’s suspected primary leader for gathering new clients. Your mission is to pretend to be a new client and get as much information of the distribution as well as finding out additional secret information from any electronics. Room suspected to be there with main computers.-_

There were coordinates on the bottom as well as the time frame for how long the event is being held, and since there weren’t any hitman details, he wouldn’t have to worry about any kills. Good for him to since he generally didn’t like those jobs. He also had information for which character he would be acting as.

“Ooooh, someone gets to go to a fancy party.” Felix said in awe, seeing the details from the gathering stating to dress nicely.

“I’m not going for the fun, though.” Jack hummed.

“You know, we don’t mind helping you out if you want.” Mark suggested. “I know you’re the lone wolf type, but Fe and I can have your back, and you know it’s easier to have someone distract the target while another person gets the information.”

“Yes, I know, and I appreciated the sentiment, but I’d really prefer to do this alone.” Jack answered and clicked the cuff button to close the screen and slid the cover down to hide the electronics, making it appear to be a normal accessory.

“Fine, fine, alright, but we’re going to keep bugging you on every mission.” Felix added.

Jack got up, sending a bored look to the others before pushing past the doors of the dining room to head to the mission preparation room.

He checked in with the worker there, giving him the number of his assignment and gathered what equipment he deemed necessary for the mission before going to the bedroom part of the underground base. In the back of the base had all of the apartment-like rooms, each with a sign on the door detailing which agent resided there, and found his, unlocking it with his passcode and stepped inside.

The rooms were fairly small, consisting of a bedroom, a combined small living room and kitchen, a bathroom, and a walk in closet that could also hold whatever other equipment the agent wanted to have in their room.

Jack dressed the part of his character, a rich company owner who wanted information on a competing company to bring them down, and practiced a bit to disguise his voice and make his posture proper.

His long sleeved suit covered his bracelets and he grabbed his glasses, looking like normal ones from anyone else’s point of view, but held screens of information to him. It was another thing Mark and Felix teased him on, saying it was like the Iron Man helmet if it was just glasses.

Once he was ready, he left his room and headed to the garage, grabbing the keys to his car and drove out to the exit doors, going up the slope as the doors opened to reveal the hidden path in a tunnel.

…

He drove up to his destination, a fancy looking mansion, and showed his fake ID to the guard at the door who nodded and let him in. The room had a collection of neatly dressed men and women, talking quietly to one another, and saw a staircase leading up to more rooms further on. He began his search.

He wasn’t too entertained with the people here. A few woman sauntered over to him, flirting and trying to figure out who he was, and Jack played along politely, getting the favor of most people in the room until he attracted the attention of his target.

Again, he wasn’t too entertained when the man came over, a little heavier and held a glass of mostly likely alcohol, but he recorded the conversation as he subtle explained how he wanted to crush his competitors by whatever means necessary, even it was “not entirely accepted by others.”

The man smirked and chuckled, saying he understood completely, leading him to another room away from most of the crowd and started giving more useful information.

Once he seemed to tell Jack all that he was willing to, giving him an opportunity to accept his help, Jack excused himself saying he needed a moment to confer with his partner to make sure he knew of their deal and would accept as well. The man smiled and nodded, looking smug and believing that Jack was going to agree with him, and Jack left the room to find the computer area.

The house was large and he had to sneak around quietly to make sure no one else who walked by noticed him; he knew there were guards around as well. He was also aware of his time limit, knowing the man would get suspicious when he didn’t return, so he opened the map on his glasses and tried to navigate around. He had the layout of the building, but it didn’t say which rooms were which, so he had to determine which rooms were the right size and shape to be considered the right one.

It took a few tries and he had to hide in a few other rooms when guards walked by, but he eventually found the right room, dark as night, and made his way to the computers.

He found the main computer, one with the largest monitor, and took out his USB and plugged it in, breaking past the lock screen and getting in. His eyes quickly scanning each document, flicking from tab to tab, adrenaline pumping, and searched for the file that had the information he needed.

He paused when he ran into one file that had strange coding… one he’s never seen before… It had numbers that seemed to constantly change, letters flickering, moving across the screen as though it was… alive?

Jack stared at it for a bit, but it wasn’t the file he was looking for and moved on to the next one. He watched the strange coding stay at the side of the screen, almost as if it was watching what Jack was doing, and he pursed his lips.

He found a file labeled “Maker” and recognized it as the one he was looking for and immediately started copying it to the USB. It was going slowly, always one of Jack’s least favorite parts, and it only made matters worse when he heard footsteps approaching.

Jack’s eyes widened, knowing he couldn’t stop downloading midway, but was shocked as the screen went black and he quickly pulled the chair up and hid under the table against the side.

He heard someone open the door and flick the lights on, looking around and not seeing anything out of place, but started walking further into the room to check anyway.

Jack cursed lightly and checked his jacket for one of his guns and picked the one with the tranquilizer darts. He preferred to get his work done cleanly, staying under the radar and not bringing up a mess such as an unconscious body, but if the man found him, it would only make things worse.

Just as the man was about to turn past a lane of computers where Jack wouldn’t be out of sight anymore, he heard a ping as the man paused and checked his phone. He grunted and turned around, turning off the lights and closing the door.

Well… that was strangely lucky.

Jack gave it a few seconds before pushing the chair out and crawling out from his hiding spot to see that the monitor had turned back on and had continued downloading.

He sighed in relief and quickly checked to see if there were any other documents that might be useful before the file finished copying over and grabbed the USB, putting it away in the bracelet. He paused for a second, seeing the strange coding still pulled up, watching the coding move around a bit like it was trying to form a type of picture, but Jack shook the thought and closed everything before turning off the computer.

He quickly left the room and started to make his leave when he heard more footsteps.

“He’s not with the crowd?”

“No, sir, and our outside guard says his car is still here.”

“Find him.”

Jack started panicking a bit, hearing doors opening and closing, signaling that they were checking every room and he couldn’t hide there, but he was too high up to find a window and try jumping.

Geez, how long was he in the computer room?

The footsteps were coming from both sides, and there wasn’t much time to think.

He was about to go into one of the rooms to looking for a way of escape or proper hiding until his glasses seemed to glitch a bit as the map blurred before returning to normal and a flashing dot was glowing in a spot a few feet away from his position. He looked up and noticed an air duct on the cieling, of course, and quickly ran over to it, using a metal piece from his belt to pry it open and pushed off of a small table holding a potted plant to pull himself into the duct; wiggling himself to move backwards since the duct had paths in front and behind him, so he arms could hold the lid in place and snap it back.

He then held his breath and stayed completely still.

He looked down, seeing people moving through the hall and looking through the rooms before moving on.

Jack stayed still for a while, knowing that moving would cause noise, and didn’t know how far away the others were, but his glasses seemed to glitch up again. When they cleared up, they revealed a more accurate layout of the building, giving names to each of the rooms, but what surprised him more was that it gave Jack a few different escape routes from his current position.

He frowned a bit, not understanding what was happening, but decided to get out first and question it later.

The escape routes looked real, and somehow knew that there was a tree by one of the windows in a nearby room that Jack could jump to and climb down.

He quickly ran to the room, a small part in his mind thinking it may be a trick and there were guards waiting for him here, but the room was empty and Jack opened the window, propping his feet on the edge before pushing off and clutching onto a branch in range.

The tree creaked with his sudden wait and shook, leaves falling off, but Jack was able to pull himself up and climb over to the base of the tree before using the lower branches as a ladder to lower himself down until he reached the last one and jumped down at a safe distance.

The glasses flickered again, warning him of a guard nearby and he quickly hid in a group of bushes as the guard walked by with a light brushing over the ground, not seeing Jack, and continued past him.

The glasses then directed him on a strange path to his car, but he got to it safely and started it up, thankful for it being quiet, and drove away, others not seeing anything strange from someone leaving.

As Jack was driving back to the base, he took a few different routes just for safety so he wasn’t being followed, and then called Felix.

After a few rings, Fe picked up.

“Yo, do you need help?”

“No, I wanted to ask if you were the one butting into my work.” Jack answered.

“What? No, if I butt into your work you’re going to know it was me.”

Huh, then what happened with his glasses and the computer back in the room?

“Did something happen?” Felix asked.

“I’m not sure, may just be malfunction in my tech.”

“Well, you can get it checked back at the base, where another nice lady works, just to remind you.”

“Fe, no.”

“I will never stop trying to hook you up until you find someone, dude, so get used to it.”

“I will always say no, so get used to it.”

Felix teased him a bit more before they ended the call and Jack drove back to base.

…

Jack first went to his room, changing to more comfortable clothing and putting away his gear, setting the ones he took from the equipment room on a table by the door to take back later.

He walked over to his computer and plugged in the USB, going to send the files to the collective information archive to complete his mission when he noticed there were two files on the stick.

There was the one labeled “Maker” but then there was one label “4271” and he didn’t remember putting it there. He opened the new file only to see the strange coding pop up on the screen.

“The hell?” Jack mumbled, shocked to see it here.

The coding started moving around, confusing Jack some more, until a word document was pulled up in the corner of the screen. The document started typing by itself, but the letters were jumbled and seemed to change like the coding was.

Eventually the letters calmed down and spelled out “HElLo”

“The hell did I download.” Jack frowned, thinking that this was some type of broken program that was supposed to act as a person maybe which is why is knew “hello” or maybe could search the internet and found that that was the usual first thing that humans say.

He was never impressed with the stupid talking programs that people came up with.

He got up and walked over to his tiny kitchen in the other room, looking through the little fridge and grabbed a soda. He started looking through his cupboard for something to eat when he heard beeping from his computer. He frowned and walked over to it to see a new message.

“whY LEAve?”

Okay, so normal chat programs didn’t respond with that and how did it know he left?

He hesitantly sat down in front of his computer again and watched as it started typing again.

“h3llo?”

“There’s no three in hello.” Jack said sarcastically and watched as the word document deleted the three and replaced it with an e.

Okay, so it can hear him now.

“nAme?” it typed out.

“You first.” Jack frowned, not trusting this thing.

“nO, u Jack… me?”

Jack froze… the thing knew his name.

“You want me to… name you?” He asked.

He should really be more concerned about this thing being in the Eclipse Base, but… he was intrigued by it.

“yEs.”

He looked back at the file, seeing the name “4271” again and he tried to match letters to what the numbers looked like.

“Uh… how about… Anti?”

The coding on the screen seemed to think for a bit before the document typed again.

“c:”

Jack chuckled a bit at strange coded being using an emoticon.

The coding moved around a bit and Jack began to think it was almost trying to imitate a human face with two eyes.

“So… can I ask… what are you?” Jack questioned.

“eXPeriMent… cReaTed bY huMaNS… lIke AI… buT…”

“But you think on your own…”

“UseD to BE…”

“Human?”

“…I tHInk?”

Oh… Jack has heard of people trying to use humans to create a successfully living AI, but he didn’t think people actually _did_ it, let alone succeed.

“trApPed iN thErE... aLOne… eveRyoNe ElsE i saW… nOt NIce…”

Why was Jack feeling bad about it now?

Jack’s always been fascinated with technology, it’s why he loved being a hacker in the first place, and seeing this being, Anti, was relighting his excitement for it again. He was… captivated by it.

“Was the computer I hacked into your home?”

“NoT exActlY… I Live teCHnolOgY… waS onE Of maNy pLacEs i DweLlED.”

“Oh.”

“yOu… HaVe nO reCords…”

“Not exactly.”

“fOunD ‘Jack’ on tHis cOMputeR… yOu… DifFerent.”

“Thanks?”

“c:”

Jack couldn’t help chuckle a bit again.

“Wait… were you the one who helped me escape the place?”

“YeS.”

Oh, so that explains it.

“Well… I appreciate your help.” Jack smiled a bit, then thought about what to do now.

If anyone else found out about him, they might get Jack in trouble for bringing an unidentified… thing?... into their secret headquarters and do who knows what to Anti.

“But, you can’t let others know you’re here, it might get me in trouble and you… killed maybe… I’m not sure.”

“oKay.”

Jack announced that he was going to return his equipment and get something to eat, leaving his computer on for Anti as he left the room and returned his borrowed equipment.

As he grabbed something from the dining hall, he didn’t run into Mark or Felix, guessing they probably are resting in their own rooms, and sat at the same table again to eat.

He was interesting in getting to know more about Anti; it almost excited him knowing that he had such a strange being in his computer who practically existed in the world of coding and could probably do more hacking than Jack could.

He spaced out a bit at the table, but remembered that he should probably return to Anti soon and put away he trash before walking back to his room.

He punched in the code and walked inside, locking it and preparing to go to bed soon. He entered his bedroom area only to be greeted by a strange figure standing in the room with him and he instinctively grabbed a gun from the drawer in his desk before pointing it at the strange figure.

It looked holographic, flickering between visible and disappearing, but it put it’s hands up and tried to speak, seeming to frown when only weird clicks and whines came out. It didn’t really have a distinctive face either… it was just… like a shadow of a person… an outline.

The figure then pointed to the computer and noticed a new message on the document.

“iT me”

“…Anti?”

The figure nodded quickly.

Jack put the gun down and slowly walked towards the figure, walking around it to get a better look at it.

“You… have a form?”

He looked over at the document to see its response.

“kInDA… i doN’t hAve oNe… I immiTAtE.”

Jack hummed at that, impressed that the being could make a form outside of the computer, but then yawned.

“Are you going to be okay if I go to sleep?”

The being tried to speak again, then stopped and just nodded.

Jack knew that he should be concerned that some strange creature he just met today was staying in his room and was going to stay while he went to sleep. The agent part of his mind was telling him that he was going to die in his sleep by that thing… but the other part of his mind, the more human part, didn’t want the being to leave. His mind thought back to how Mark and Felix both wanted him to find someone to be with… and Anti had a body now, right?

Jack shook the thought from his mind, now _that_ was something he shouldn’t be thinking, and walked over to his bed to sit down.

“Do you… uh… sleep?”

“i hAve a SLeeP mOde.” Jack read from the computer in his room.

“Oh… well… if you want to sleep… I suppose now would be the time? I guess.”

The being nodded in understanding but didn’t seem to move to go to sleep.

Jack just shrugged and laid down in bed, pulling the covers up over himself and closing his eyes.

What could go wrong?

…

Jack woke up the next morning and smelled… bacon?

He got up, looking at his computer to see that there were no new messages from Anti, but noticed that there were a _ton_ of tabs open to thinks such as human biology, English language, basic human requirements, and other similar tabs.

When Jack walked out of the bedroom to the combined open kitchen living room area, he found someone with his back turned cooking bacon.

“Uh…?” Jack was confused, that wasn’t Anti, was it? And his door was locked so no one could’ve gotten inside.

The man turned and shocked Jack when he saw the man’s face.

It was his face.

“Jack!” The man smiled, voice sounding just like his except with a slight electronic tone to it.

“Who are…?”

“Anti!” He still smiled.

“You’re… Anti?”

“Yes, do you like?” He motioned to his new form and Jack scrunched his eyebrows together.

“You… look just like me?”

“Yes, I told you I imitate forms, I don’t have my own. I also practiced English all night. Then I looked up human functions and made breakfast!”

Anti seemed pretty proud with himself and Jack couldn’t help but smile back.

“Well, it smells pretty great.”

Anti continued cooking until the bacon was done and moved it all to a plate and set it on the little table for Jack to eat.

Jack thanked him and waited for it to cool off a bit before taking a bite, making a pleasing noise as he finished the first piece.

“This tastes grea-“ He stopped when he realized Anti pulled up a chair right next to him and was very close.

Anti slowly reached his hands up and cupped Jack’s cheeks… looking at his eyes with wonder, and then started slowly turning Jack’s face side to side to inspect it almost.

“Humans are weird.” He said softly.

“I suppose we are?” Jack said just as softly.

Anti turned Jack’s face to the center again before slowly moving his hands, one going under Jack’s right ear while the other started brushing his lips.

Anti pulled Jack’s bottom lip down a little bit, causing Jack’s mouth to open slightly.

Against his better judgement, acting on impulse really, Jack stuck his tongue out a little bit and tapped one of Anti’s fingers, causing the being’s eyes to widen a bit as he poked his tongue back.

Their faces started getting close, very close, and Jack felt his face heat up for some reason, and he literally just met the guy but for some reason he wasn’t alarmed by it.

And he looked and sounded like him, that was the really weird part, but Jack wasn’t too disturbed because it’s not like he stares at the mirror enough to be completely familiar with what he looks like.

Maybe he could convince Anti to change up a little bit, though.

Jack didn’t move, letting Anti do what he wanted, and watched as their noses almost touched.

Then Jack’s phone binged.

Anti leaned back and looked at Jack’s phone that he placed on the table when he sat down, tilting his head a bit before speaking.

“Someone under the contact name “Red” wants to know if you’ll join then for breakfast.”

“Oh, that’s Mark.”

He labeled all of his contacts with color code names instead of actual names, Mark being Red and Felix being Blue.

“Wait, you can check my phone?” He added.

“I have connections to all technology that I can find access to. Phones and technology that have wireless connections are easier to get to.”

“I see…”

Jack picked up his phone and replied that he was eating in his room, then got another text from Felix not long after asking for proof, so Jack sent them a picture of his plate of bacon.

He set his phone down and finished eating while Anti continued to inspect him, but not as closely as before. He got up to wash the plate, setting it in the sink before walking over to the closet in his bedroom and changed into his usual clothes for the day.

He found Anti sitting on the counter looking at the microwave in curiosity.

For a being that had access to all of the information on the internet, he sure was curious, almost as though he didn’t understand how things worked.

Jack asked about it and he responded by saying that experiencing things in the real world is different that reading about them.

Jack had to leave his room soon, though, and he didn’t want to leave Anti, who was now a person, alone. He couldn’t bring Anti with him, though, because he isn’t supposed to be in Eclipse in the first place.

“I can change forms.” Anti answered when Jack expressed his concerns and watched as Anti’s figure turned to the weird coded figure from yesterday before disappearing completely.

Jack heard a beep from his phone and checked, seeing he got a new message from an unknown source.

“Does this work?” It asked.

Jack smiled and said yes aloud, getting a “c:” in return and he chuckled again. That face was becoming cute to him.

He labeled the source “Green” and smiled as he walked out of his room to start his day.

For the first time, he wasn’t feeling like being a lone wolf today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, does anyone even like this? Is this an interesting story? I just kind of made it up on the spot.
> 
> What am I doing with my life?


	2. Change to Green

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first chapter was long to introduce the story, but the rest of the chapters will be shorter, like this one.

Jack got to work in the morning organizing files at the organization’s advanced computer room, technology a lot more elite than the computer he had in his room, and made sure that his boss knew that the file labeled “Maker” that he sent over was the one he extracted from his mission yesterday.

Work was boring, but it still needed to be done. Even if he didn’t have a mission assigned to him, there were still jobs at the base.

He got a few texts on his phone from Anti, and it seemed he understood about keeping hidden since he stayed on the phone rather than getting onto the computers for Eclipse. His own personal computer was different, so it didn’t matter that Anti was on there, but he was impressed with how quickly the being seemed to catch on.

Sometimes Jack was glance at his phone to see random tabs open, noting that Anti was searching up random information, and would occasionally ask Jack about something.

The being said he was human before becoming an coded being, or at least Anti said he _thought_ he was. Jack didn’t really know what to think of that since the being clearly didn’t understand completely what a human was but he wasn’t a blank computer program either. Maybe Anti used to be a human but he forgot about his past life so it was kind of like he was learning from the beginning again.

Jack felt like it was too personal of a question to ask and that it didn’t really matter too much at the moment either.

It was lunch time when Jack decided to take a break and got up to go over to the dining hall where he found Mark and Felix eating together. He got his own tray of food and sat down at their table knowing that they would’ve gotten up to move over to him if he sat anywhere else anyway.

“Hey, Jackaboy, how’d the mission go yesterday?” Mark asked as Jack sat down.

“Fine, got the info and got out.” Jack responded simply and stabbed a watermelon cube with his fork.

“Figure out what happened to your tech?” Felix questioned.

“Yeah, just a new feature that caught me off guard.” Jack shrugged.

Mark and Felix talked to him about a new mission that the two of them got as well.

In Eclipse, they pair up certain members into groups, and since Felix is a behind the scenes hacker and Mark is an on the field agent, they got paired well together and Jack was grouped with them as well since he did both hacking and field work. However, as the organization seemed to figure out, Jack preferred to work alone, so they only really assigned all three of them to a mission when it was absolutely necessary or extremely important.

As they explained, Mark made wide arm gestures and Felix added sound effects, causing both of them to laugh. Jack got a text and looked down to see it was from Anti.

“I thought you were a weird human, but these two are weirder.”

Jack cracked a grin, getting the attention of the other two.

“Oh? Is Jack smiling? At a text? And it’s not from either of us?” Felix wiggled his eyebrows. “Did someone finally find a lucky someone?”

Jack put his neutral expression back on and gave Felix a silent “what do you think?” with an unamused face.

“I didn’t know you talked with other people here, though.” Mark smiled. “You’re finally making friends!”

“Yeah, sure let’s go with that.” Jack rolled his eyes, not wanting to reveal Anti’s existence.

“Is it the lady from team management I mentioned?” Felix smirked.

“No, Fe, just no, stop with the trying.”

“Never!” Felix threw his arms up and Mark laughed.

After lunch, Jack returned to the computer room to finish putting new files and information in order before returning to his room for the day.

He sat down on the couch in the main room to watch some videos; there wasn’t a television in the room but Jack had a device that he set on the table and it brought up a screen that acted just like one.

As he used the touchscreen to scroll through a list of videos, he saw in the corner of his eye that Anti was creating his human form again.

It took the being a few moments to get the form right, but he looked just like Jack once more and sat back on his heels on the couch next to Jack.

He watched the video on the screen for a while and looked back at Jack too, looking curious and swaying back and forth occasionally.

“You’re… different.” He finally said.

“You’ve said that before.” Jack hummed, glancing at him before returning to look at the screen.

“You’re not… afraid.”

Jack turned to look at him then and frowned.

“Why would I be afraid of you?”

“I don’t know…” The being shuffled a bit in his spot and looked to the side. “You’re not the first human I’ve tried to talk to… but the others were not as… nice as you.”

“What happened?” Jack asked hesitantly.

“I think I was created… for bad reasons? Like… people wanted me to hack into places and destroy stuff and… I didn’t want to do it because they told me to. When others found out about me, they either freaked out or called me a monster or tried to use me for their own purposes.”

“Oh.” Jack frowned.

The being tilted his head and looked into Jack’s eyes before smiling and hugging him, resting his head on Jack’s shoulder.

“I like you, though.” He said and Jack blushed.

 _”Don’t take it the wrong way, me.”_ Jack thought to himself as he turned his head to try to distract himself with the video playing.

The rest of the day went by with Anti holding onto him as he watched a few more videos. After it had gotten late, he turned off the hologram screen and walked to his bedroom to change into his pajamas. He was wearing his soft pajama pants only, looking through his drawer for a nice shirt, when Anti came into the room.

“Oh… uh… do you need something?” Jack asked, blushing a little as he realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

“I would like to see what it’s like to sleep in this form… but where would I sleep?” The being tilted his head innocently.

Jack hadn’t thought of that and he only had one bed…

“Uh… I guess… you could share my bed if you don’t mind the closeness.” Jack tried not to pay attention to the fact that he was probably blushing madly now.

“That sounds good.” The being smiled and seemed to wait for Jack to finish getting dressed.

Jack nodded and turned the other way, randomly picking a shirt at this point just to put something on before looking back at Anti.

They stared at each other for a bit before the coded man spoke up.

“Why are you looking weirdly?”

“It’s just… really weird to see someone who looks just like me.”

“Oh… hmm.” The being pursed his lips together and Jack watched as his hair and eyes seemed to glitch and turn to code before changing back to normal except being green this time.

“My name on your phone is ‘Green’ so I thought maybe this would be fitting?”

Jack walked over to him to get a closer look, seeing bright green eyes and a darker green fluff of hair, and thought it looked cute.

“Yeah, I like it.” He smiled and the being smiled back.

Jack then walked over to the bed and got underneath the covers, looking back at Anti before scooting over next to the wall.

Anti imitated Jack, getting under the covers himself, but didn’t hesitate to rest his head on Jack’s chest and put an arm over him.

Jack noted that the being felt cooler than normal humans, but he didn’t seem to mind it too much, thinking it was a nice contrast to the warmth of the blankets.

He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but he was too nervous with Anti laying on top of him, so he ended up watching the being for a while.

The being seemed relaxed, eyes closed, face calm, and Jack figured it would be easy for Anti to switch to sleep mode while Jack had to actually wait for his mind to fall asleep.

Jack watched and couldn’t resist the temptation, bringing a hand up to gently run his fingers through the green floof, thinking it was a nice color.

He didn’t know how long he was doing that, but eventually his mind relaxed enough and he fell asleep, his hand that used to be petting the being’s hair was now wrapped around his body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why am I writing this? Who even knows...
> 
> I think I just wanted to write Jack and Anti getting together so... yeah... that's pretty much the focus of this story...


	3. Strange Information

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random note of information, "Code Grey" means the mission is primarily hacking, meaning that the most important part of the mission is hack/retrieve information and other parts of the mission can be changed in order to accomplish the primary goal.

Jack woke up to an unfamiliar weight on top of him. He blinked his eyes open and lifted his head a little to see Anti snuggling into his chest just as he was doing last night and the human really couldn’t tell if the coded being was awake or sleeping or what.

Jack didn’t want to move, but he had to get up and prepare for the day eventually, as much as he wanted to stay in bed.

He put his hand hesitantly on the being’s shoulder and tried to move him off of himself a bit but Anti’s eyes shot open as soon as he was moved.

Anti jerked his head up and stared at Jack before glancing around quickly, almost as if he was analyzing the situation, then seemed to relax a bit.

The coded being sat up and shifted to move his legs off the edge of the bed and turned to Jack, expecting him to do the same. Jack followed, sitting up next to him and setting his feet on the floor as well.

“Did you sleep well?” Anti asked.

“Yeah, didn’t dream but it was nice anyway.”

“I don’t understand how humans dream.” The being frowned a bit.

“I don’t understand it either. What do you do when you sleep, though?”

“I still have my basic programs running, but everything else turns off so I don’t have to use so much energy at a time and I can relax. Things such as the visual systems and evaluative functions are off, but sleep mode tends to keep the touch and hearing systems on in case there is something happening around me which I would need to be alerted on.”

“Do you have a proximity or movement sensor on while you sleep?” Jack asked, curious of the being’s functions.

“Not by default, no, but I can turn them on if you want.”

Jack shook his head no, knowing that the security system of Eclipse was more than enough to keep out anyone from the room.

He decided to go out to the dining hall for breakfast this morning, seeing as there was never a lot of food in his room to begin with, and waited for Anti to return to his technology form inside his phone. He heard his phone beep with a message and saw that Anti texted him a “c:” again.

Every time he saw that he was going to think of Anti now.

Jack left his room and walked over to the dining hall, following his routine of sitting with Mark and Felix as they talked about work and what they did during their breaks. After they had finished eating, Jack excused himself to go to the tech workshop room they had where they let agents use whatever equipment was there, which was high-end stuff, to improve or tinker with their equipment for future missions. They trusted that the agents wouldn’t ruin their equipment, given that Eclipse was the one who provided everything and would scold them for breaking anything recklessly, but Jack was an organized person and knew what he was doing.

About an hour later, Jack got a new mission and opened it up on the holographic screen from his left cuff.

_\- New Mission: Continuation- Code Grey_

_Objective: Infiltrate Unseen, Hack_

_Info: Based on the information from the “Maker” files, we believe the organization goes farther than the estate you found the file at. The location of the main base of operations is still unknown, but we found the coordinates of another base with similar connections._

It detailed that his mission was to go in unseen, so he didn’t have to worry about staying in character, but that also meant he had to make sure none of the guards or workers at the building knew he was there, which was sometimes worse. The coordinates showed the building to have underground rooms and suspected that the room that he needed to hack into to get the information would be located there too.

When things started going underground, it made it more risky since a lot of escape procedures no longer worked since Jack would be surrounded by dirt on all four sides and the only way out is up through the building’s main walkways.

The bottom of the mission notes stated that it was highly recommended to have another agent work with him.

Jack frowned and tapped his fingers on the table in front of him.

Anti read the mission details through the message that was also sent to his phone and started texting Jack.

“I could help.”

Jack read the text and was silent as he thought about it.

Anti did seem to be a skilled hacker of sorts and it would be nice to have another “set of eyes” in a sense without an actual physical body there that could get caught.

“How good are you at hacking?” Jack hummed aloud.

“Because of defense systems and firewalls, I would need to have a direct connection rather than wireless access, but once I get in it should be easy for me to locate any files of interest and retrieve them undetected.”

Jack nodded in acknowledgement as he watched Anti type out another message.

“You still have the USB with my file on it. That acts as a doorway of sorts for me to get around; if you plug that into the computer I will be able to access the information we need and transfer them onto the USB as well. I can also locate the GPS signals of wireless devices like cellphones that most people have with them to map out where guards and others will be located.”

That would be a nifty skill to have indeed.

“Alright, we’ll leave at sundown tonight.” Jack confirmed and went back to fixing up his equipment.

After dinner that day, Jack went back to his room and got Anti situated with all of his technology that he would have during the mission. He watched as Anti familiarized himself with his tech and experimented with his glasses as well as testing the ear piece to communicate through.

Once the time was right, Jack drove off to the destination.

 

…

 

It was easy to sneak in through the first set of doors and Jack quickly found a lab coat to wear that belonged to the organization as well as the leftover name tag in the pocket. He slipped the tag out of its plastic case to cover the stranger’s face with his own so when a guard glanced at it, they would not recognize anything out of the ordinary. Jack highly doubted that the guards would be able to connect names to faces and he didn’t intended to stay still long enough for someone to read the name on the tag anyway.

He found out quickly that the building didn’t seem to like elevators and had to use either stairs or slanted walkways to make his way down.

He walked by a few workers, making sure to keep his façade of “I belong here” showing as to not make anyone suspicious as he quickly scanned the rooms for the technology one.

“This place does not seem to be normal.” Anti commented through the ear piece.

Jack couldn’t respond back but he did make a soft humming sound for being to continue.

“I am detecting a lot of monitoring devices similar to ones used in hospitals as well as energy currents that are more substantial that simply powering computers or average devices.”

Jack frowned but kept moving.

He turned the corner to go down another ramp when he noticed a group of workers in lab coats as well rush into one of the rooms farther ahead. Jack kept his normal walking speed but turned his head to look into the room there.

He couldn’t see much, there was a curtain blocking his view, but it appeared that the lab coat people were gathered around a table of some sort.

“How is the subject?”

“Stable. Showing no sign of resistance so far. Continuation of procedure is green.”

Jack couldn’t stay long without drawing attention, but that room wasn’t his targeted room and his mission had first priority.

He turned another corner and had to go through a larger area to proceed forward but paused after getting a clear sight of it.

It seemed like a lab of some type, vials of strange liquids and monitors showing statistics of testing were around the room along with piles of papers and weird biology like testing tubes.

“I do not believe it is safe to be here any longer than necessary.” Anti informed.

What was going on at this lab? And this wasn’t even the main base of operations; if this is what was happening here, then what the hell was going on at the real base.

Jack heard footsteps approaching and quickly returned to walking forward, pretending that he wasn’t surprised by this, and continued looking for his targeted room.

He was getting farther down when he started noticing more guards.

“I am picking up a stronger signal in that direction; I believe the room we are looking for is there.”

Of course, it was being guarded by someone standing outside of the door.

Here goes nothing.

Jack took in a steady breath before walking over to the door and turning to the guard as he looked down at Jack, silently asking why he was there with a stern frown. Jack gave him the best blank expression before speaking.

“One of the subjects is getting impulsive, there is a file here I was sent to retrieve.” Jack said calmly.

He saw as the guard looked down at the tag, noting that it matched with Jack’s face, and nodded to let Jack pass.

He knew they wouldn’t be able to tell faces from names.

Jack quickly walked into the room and watched as the doors shut, leaving him alone, though for how long he didn’t know.

“Plug in the USB and I’ll get to work.” Anti noted and Jack quickly found what he believed was the main computer before glancing back at the door.

He didn’t know how long he would have to “retrieve a file” before the guard got suspicious and hoped Anti really could be quick about it like he said.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Jack hadn’t decided yet, he heard a pattern of beeps come from the buildings overhead speaker system, probably signaling some type of problem, then heard an actual voice.

“Subject in room K in need of assistance.” It said, though Jack thought it was a little more than just simple assistance that was going on there.

Whatever was happening, though, it seemed to be distracting everyone else, giving Jack the extra time that he needed.

“These files are… very… abstract.” Anti informed as the information was being transferred to the USB.

“Abstract how?” Jack asked aloud now that he was alone.

“I am looking through some of them and whoever wrote these used code words and symbols so it is hard to depict what exactly is happening, but it seems they are doing testing of some sort.”

Jack could’ve guessed as much.

“It is unclear what exactly they are testing on, but it seems there are mostly failures and errors.”

He was not liking the sound of this. They then heard another pattern of beeps overhead.

“Subject in room K in need of immediate sedative.”

They could hear a rumble of footsteps rushing past the door.

“I am detecting error messages in the buildings main system where the overhead alarms are coming from.” Anti seemed upset.

As soon as the files were done being transferred onto the USB, Jack grabbed it and started heading back out, walking quickly as he didn’t want to be here any longer.

They heard a crashing sound from one of the rooms above them and Jack grimaced. He wasn’t sure if it was real or not, but he also thought he might have heard a scream.

“A room above us went offline.” Anti informed.

As they started getting to higher floors of the building, they found the room where the crashing had originated from. The lights were burned out and there was glass on the floor. Monitors in that room were flickering and they were guards inside of it while more scientists were gathered around outside.

“The subject was not compatible with that treatment… add to the notes that syncing did not follow the suspected pattern.”

They seemed too distracted to notice Jack and he easily walked past them and closer to the exit.

He was happy that there was enough unrest to cause his escape to go smoothly but… what caused that in the first place. If everyone was uneasy, then something bad must have happened. Hopefully the information that Anti grabbed could further explain what’s going on.

As he got to the floor back at the surface, Jack took the coat off, retrieving his face cover and leaving the tag, knowing that if he took it the owner would notice it missing and could potentially have guards looking for a person using that name.

He got in his car and quickly drove off.

It was an easy mission… but Jack felt really uncomfortable.

They returned to the Eclipse base and Jack quickly went to his room and turned on his computer to send the files he got to his boss.

After that was done he moved back to the living room area and sat down on the couch, looking off to the side as he thought about what happened.

“Are you alright?” He heard and turned to see Anti sitting next to him.

“Yeah… I’m just… confused. I’ve never had to deal with a group who could be doing biological testing before… it feels… wrong for someone to do that.”

He saw Anti frown.

Then he felt Anti’s hands cup his cheeks to turn his face to look at him directly. The coded being looked into his eyes before leaning forward and pressing their lips together. Jack didn’t move, not expecting that to happen and was stuck in a state of surprise as he felt Anti tilt his head a little to move his lips at a better angle. The being’s lips were surprisingly soft, though Jack didn’t know what he was expecting anyway, noting that this definitely wasn’t helping him calm down as his heart-rate picked up.

Anti leaned back and looked into Jack’s eyes again, though he kept his hands on Jack’s cheeks.

“…what?” Jack asked softly, still confused.

“I read that people kiss when the like someone and I thought it would make you feel better.” Anti responded.

Oh.

Oh?

Wait, what was Anti’s definition of like? Was he using it in the proper context? Earlier Anti had said that he liked Jack but he was saying it in a friendly manner, but then what if he wasn’t? What if he just didn’t realize that liking a person as a friend was different than the word like used for relationships and he didn’t realize there were two different definitions? Or maybe he knew there were two different definitions and he was playing dumb?

Jack was getting lost in his own head when Anti stood up and grabbed on of Jack’s hands to pull him off of the couch.

“I have another idea.” Anti stated as he pulled Jack into the bedroom.

They were going to the bedroom after Anti just kissed him...

_“Get your mind out of the gutter, Jack.”_ He thought to himself as he shook his head to clear his thoughts.

It was getting late and he had already switched into his pajamas, so getting into bed wasn’t a bad idea… but what was Anti going to do.

Anti motioned for Jack to get into bed first so he did so hesitantly, laying down on the bed as the being pulled the blankets up and got into bed with him. Then the being rested his head on top of Jack’s chest and put an arm over him just as they had done last night and Jack was getting confused.

Then he felt a rumbling sensation coming from Anti.

“I read that purring can help heal the human body in certain ways as well as help them relax.” Anti hummed softly as he snuggled into Jack.

Anti was purring… on top of him… like a cat.

Jack really didn’t know what to think of that but the vibrations were oddly nice, and the thought of Anti trying to help him was sweet. He smiled as he wrapped an arm over Anti just as he had done last night as he shifted slightly into a more comfortable position and relaxed with the being purring on top of him.

It really did seem to make Jack feel better, though he didn’t know if it was purely from the purring or just from being comforted by Anti himself, purring or not.

It was nice… it really was nice.

Jack let out a content sigh as he felt himself drift off to sleep again, wondering what he would have to do to get another kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not going to lie, this story was mainly for me to practice smut, I told myself that I was gonna do it, I was gonna write it, I was gonna write chapters of it, and yet here I am actually making a plot and relationship progression.
> 
> What am I doing with my life, seriously, what is going on?


	4. Another Kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter: "I wonder what I have to do to get another kiss?"  
> *This chapter is titled "Another Kiss"*  
> Hhhhhmmmmmmmmm, well, that was fast.

Jack woke up from a rather heated dream and stared up at the ceiling as he tried to calm down from it. Anti was in the same position that he had originally fallen asleep with, arm over Jack’s chest, but was no longer purring.

Jack didn’t know if he wanted to get up and away from Anti since he was still bothered from the dream or if he wanted to stay with Anti cuddling him like this because that’s what his heart wanted him to do.

He decided now was a good time to actually think about what he wanted relationship wise with the coded being.

Based on the dream he just had, his subconscious really _really_ wanted to be in a romantic relationship with the being and Jack wouldn’t deny it. The only problem was that the logical part of his mind had a ton of issues with it. First of all, Anti wasn’t a normal human. Secondly, he looked a lot like Jack and Jack didn’t want to feel like a weird narcissist or something. Thirdly, he wasn’t even sure if Anti knew how relationships worked; Jack didn’t want to make Anti do something if he didn’t fully understand what it meant to be together with another person and be in… love.

Jack wanted to love Anti and know he was loved back…

Woah, okay, that was a realization that took Jack by surprise. He’s never really fallen in love with anyone before. When he was a kid, he was naïve and innocent, never looking for anything like that, and when he grew up he was more fascinated with technology and the world of coding than trying to pursue a lover.

Now that he thought about it, Jack never really found any human to be attractive in the “I want to date you” kind of way. His mind surely wanted to do more than dating with Anti, though, and that was a first.

Did Jack just create a new type of romantic preference? Is loving a coded being a thing yet?

This was going to be difficult, though, because he absolutely needed to make sure that Anti understood how relationships functioned so he could have a proper opinion in this himself; if Anti didn’t want to be in a relationship with Jack like how he wanted it to be, then there was no way he was going to make the being do that. This relationship was going to be mutual… if there was a relationship.

He felt Anti shift a little bit and watched as he lifted his head and looked at Jack with those green eyes of his.

“Good morning.” Anti hummed.

“Good morning.” Jack answered back.

“How are you feeling?”

Jack didn’t want to say… everything that he was feeling.

“Fine, slept… well.”

“That’s good.” Anti sat up and got out of bed, walking into the next room and Jack heard him rustling through the drawers and kitchen supplies.

Jack decided to take a shower first thing and quickly cleaned off his body and washed his hair so he could go back to the other room to see what Anti was up to. After doing that and getting dressed, he walked into the other room to see that Anti had in fact made breakfast for him and was waiting for him at the table.

Anti seemed pretty happy while Jack ate, he wasn’t too sure why the being was like that, but he found that it made him happy just the same.

The two of them cleaned up the kitchen together before Jack headed over to the door and made sure all of his bracelets and other equipment were on properly. Usually Anti changed forms to work on Jack’s phone by now, but this time he lingered and walked over to where Jack was standing.

“Today I’ll be working in one of the maintenance rooms to help repair some of the broken equipment brought back from other missions.” Jack informed.

“Mm, sounds boring.” Anti huffed.

“Yeah, but it needs to be done.”

He looked up at Anti and expected him to go to the phone any second now; he wasn’t expecting Anti to gently kiss his lips like it was totally normal.

“Hope it doesn’t get too tiresome, though.” Anti smiled and then he phased away into the phone.

Jack stood still for a while, not knowing what to think of their second kiss now.

He had to remember the plan, though, he can’t lead Anti into thinking the wrong things about how humans did this, but he didn’t want to tell Anti to stop either…

Jack decided to think about it later and left to go to the maintenance room; maybe it’ll help keep his thoughts in order to keep himself busy.

 

…

 

Jack really didn’t know what he was expecting to happen, but he kept getting surprised when Anti would kiss him again. When Jack returned to his room after working at the maintenance room and having dinner with Mark and Felix, he went straight to bed and Anti created his human body and laid down next to him after giving him a kiss goodnight.

Anti did the same thing the next day, kissing Jack before he left to do another job and again before he went to sleep. They were soft kisses, no tongue or much movement, but Jack could feel his heart flutter at each one.

Just because Anti was kissing him didn’t necessarily have to mean anything right? And Jack never told Anti anything about kisses; the being was doing it all on his own. The first time may have been to comfort him, but all these other times were because Anti wanted to do it. They were doing this at Anti’s pace… whatever _this_ was, so it was okay, right?

Jack started to look forward to the mornings and nights just because those were the times he would get a kiss from him.

The two of them never went farther than that; however, they did cuddle more and Jack thought they were acting like a real couple aside from the intimate parts of it. They would always try to make the other smile, try to cheer the other up when they were upset, watching movies and played game together, they already fell asleep cuddling together, and they were even technically partners at work.

Jack has never felt so happy before.

Even Mark and Felix commented on his recent change in attitude, saying he was giving off warm vibes like he had fallen in love.

Maybe he had. Maybe this was what love felt like.

 

…

 

Jack got a new mission and he frowned when he read through it. This mission required possible seduction and he was never fond of those. Usually he didn’t get these types of missions, usually he got the more hacking oriented jobs; Mark was the one who was great with people, but maybe he and Felix had another mission and couldn’t get to this one.

Jack let out a sigh but prepared for his mission; these weren’t really things he had room to negotiate around.

 

He arrive at the building, another elaborate mansion, wearing a fancy grey suit with emerald cufflinks to match his tie decorated with thin green swirls.

His target was a woman, one of the special guests at a party being thrown at the mansion, who was thought to have information on her phone that may prove to be useful in furthering Eclipse’s investigation on “Project Maker”, the name they gave to the project that includes any and all missions regarding the Maker files that Jack originally found which also included his past trip to the strange lab. Unfortunately, the information he was supposed to get to was on the woman’s _phone_ which is why the mission detailed possible seduction as one of the requirements. He might have to get close to her in order to get to her phone.

Jack walked into the mansion and was greeted by two butlers who directed him to the main room where everyone was gathering and offered him a drink. It didn’t take long for Jack to find the woman he was looking for; she was wearing a bright purple dress and had her hair curled up in a bun.

Jack wasn’t wearing his earpiece or any of his more elaborate equipment in case he had to get close enough to the woman for her to be able to see them and get suspicious.

He followed the rules, keeping himself distant from the target but noticeable enough for others to interact with him until he eventually got the attention of the target herself and let her be the one to start the initial contact.

She had a little purse over her shoulder; that was where her phone would be, but it was certainly in a difficult place to get to without her noticing.

He subtly started using his charm, getting the woman to take an interest in him and dropping little hints to get the woman’s mind to think about moving to a more private room while making her think she was the one who came up with the idea. When she led him out of the main room to one of the bedrooms, she closed the door and rested her arms over his shoulders.

Guess he had to go through with it…

Jack paid more attention to the position of her purse than anything else she was doing, putting minimal effort in when she kissed him and put on hand on her hip while the other slowly clicked her purse open to get to her phone. He found the phone and slipped one of his own devices into the purse and plugged it into the bottom where the charger would be, hearing the slightest beep when the device overrode the lock and started copying everything from her phone.

He still had to keep the woman occupied enough to keep her from messing with the purse and walked her back to press against the door. He wasn’t finding any of it nice though; she was too needy and felt too warm and her lips were too icky with lipstick and her figure was too petite. He started thinking about what would happen if this was Anti instead… because that would be nice, not like how this was going.

The woman started getting handsy and Jack had to pretend that he was into it. He was immensely grateful when he heard the quiet beep again signaling the copying was done and snuck his hand into the purse again to grab the device and unplug it before slipping it back underneath his sleeve and backing away from the woman.

“Why don’t you get yourself situated here while I go prepare myself, eh?” Jack hummed and the woman smiled as she moved away from Jack and towards the bed.

Jack left the room, pretending to go to the bathroom, and immediately went the other way when the door closed and he was out of her eyesight.

On the drive home he took a moment to think back about what happened. The woman was a very stunning woman, he was sure lots of other men dreamed of getting the chance to be with her like that, but Jack honestly felt nothing towards her, he didn’t even stop to look at her body or anything. She was just another target to manipulate for information and nothing else.

His lips felt gross too, he’d have to put some extra effort into brushing his teeth tonight.

And that’s what he did, he dropped off the device with the copy of the phone as it was something he wouldn’t want to transfer over the computer and walked back to his room to brush his teeth and prepare for bed. He rinsed his mouth out twice with mouth wash, just to be certain and to make his mind feel better, and walked out to the other room to see Anti standing in the corner staring at the ground.

“Hey, Anti.” Jack greeted as he took inventory of his fridge to see what he had and what he would have to restock on.

Anti didn’t respond but Jack didn’t think much of it as he looked through the cupboards as well.

“Well, I’m gonna go head to bed now.” He added as he glanced over at Anti before walking into his bedroom to lie in bed and wait for Anti to join him.

A few minutes passed and the being never walked into the bedroom and Jack couldn’t really see the other room from where he was at. He started getting a little suspicious then since Anti was usually right behind him when he went to bed.

Maybe he just had something of his own to deal with; Jack didn’t know everything about the being, he might have his own personal things to do.

…

Jack woke up the next morning and went to wake up Anti only to realize that the being never joined him in last night and he was alone in bed.

Oh… well… that might mean a lot of things.

Jack got out of bed and took another quick shower, getting dressed and walking out to the other room to see that Anti was still in the corner, leaning against the wall now, but still there.

“Hey, what are ya doin’ there?” Jack asked as he got a glass of water.

Anti was making faces, appearing to be struggling with his own thoughts, and Jack decided to move over to the couch and sat down. He kept looking back at Anti, waiting for him to say something, and frowned when the being seemed to be getting frustrated with himself. Jack turned back to the table and brought up the hologram screen, scrolling through a list of videos and documents until he heard Anti moving against the floor and turned his head to see Anti approach him.

The being stood right in front of him before pushing him back against the couch and sitting over his lap. He cupped Jack’s face and kissed him rather suddenly, more force than what his kisses usually had.

“Jack… I… I…” He muttered between the kiss then leaned back and Jack felt his face pale when he saw Anti’s face looking defeated and miserable, tears streaming down his face.

“Am I not good enough? Is there something wrong with me?” He muttered through sharp intakes of breath.

What was happening? Why was Anti suddenly acting like this?

“Is it… is it because I’m not human? Is it because of my looks?” Anti leaned back more and Jack watched as his figure turned to code and shifted until the picture became clear again and revealed the same woman that was Jack’s target last night.

“Do you want me to look like this instead?” The voice said making Jack’s skin prickle since it sounded like her too.

“Anti, no-“

“I can change, I can change to look like someone else.” Anti started saying more frantically.

“Anti, listen to me-“

“I’ll do whatever you want, I… I can-“

“Anti, just stop!” Jack said more firmly, getting Anti to finally stop his frantic rambling. “That woman was nothing more than a target for one of my missions, I felt nothing for her at all. It’s… a bit uncomfortable having you look like her admittedly…”

Anti turned to coding once more and returned to the form he usually took that looked like Jack with green hair and eyes.

“There… that’s better…” Jack hummed as he brought his hands up and gently rubbed at Anti’s cheeks to wipe away the tears there.

He leaned forward to press his lips against Anti’s once more, softer than before, but filled with more affection and warmth.

“I like your kisses a lot more.” Jack smiled softly but Anti still frowned.

“Jack… I don’t… I don’t know what to do.” He whimpered.

“Okay, that’s okay, tell me what’s wrong.”

“I… I’m not human, I don’t understand these feelings and… and how can I be with you if I’m like this?”

“Okay, okay, calm down, let’s talk through this one step at a time.” Jack murmured and Anti seemed to relax a little on his lap. “First of all, I want you to know that I have never been with another human before because I’ve never felt attracted to another human before, you’re the first person who’s made me feel the way I do.” Jack emphasized his point with a gentle kiss to the nose. “It doesn’t matter to me if you were born like I was or differently because how I see it, you are a human, albeit a different type.”

“What…?” Anti sniffled.

“Okay, let’s think about what makes a human… _human_.” Jack smiled. “They have a body…” Jack rubbed his thumbs against Anti’s cheek again. “Check. They have a mind that lets them think and understand what’s around them.” Jack thought back to the missions they’ve been on where Anti could analyze the situation and make decisions and logical reasoning. “Check. They have feelings and are sentient.” Jack wiped away more tears… those were obviously from emotions. “Check. They can communicate with others. That’s an obvious check right there… I’d say you’re pretty human to me.”

“But I’m not-“

“You’re not in a fleshy body, but you’re still a person.” Jack cut him off. “You have your own individual mind with your own thoughts.”

“But… I don’t even know if I’m doing this right… I’ve never felt like this before…”

“Okay, so let’s talk about that. What do you think you’re feeling?”

“I… whenever I’m with you I feel happy, even if we’re not even doing anything, I just like being with you, and the thought of someone else taking you away from me made me feel mad and sad at the same time… The thought of not being with you anymore is… it’s awful, even though we haven’t known each other for long, I felt like this was supposed to happen; I can’t imagine trying to live without you.”

“If I was sick?”

“I’d make you feel better.”

“Hurt?”

“Patch you up.”

“Sad?”

“Watch one of those movies you like and cuddle.”

“If I lost an arm.”

“You’d still be beautiful.”

“If I was paralyzed.”

“I’d stay with you.”

Jack then asked a question that he based off of his own thoughts about Anti.

“If you had to choose between staying with me or learning everything about your past including how you were created and by who and about your previous life if you were really a human back then… what would you pick?”

Anti paused at the question and scrunched his eyebrows together but he soon came to a conclusion and leaned forward gently to kiss Jack again.

“I… I want to know about my past, I really do, I think about it all the time and I wonder what my purpose in life is but… if being with you means that I will never get to find out… then so be it. I would rather stay with you forever and never know who I was back then. My life wouldn’t be worth it anymore if I had to be away from you, so what’s the point of finding out about my past that way anyway…”

Jack felt himself tear up a little bit because that sounded like an honest confession.

“That’s… that’s love, Anti.” Jack smiled.

“Then… then I love you.” Anti murmured and the two of them met for yet another kiss.

This time, Jack felt Anti lick along his lips and press against them, so he parted his lips and let Anti lick along the inside of his mouth, and that’s when he noticed something was different. Anti’s tongue felt longer and his thought was confirmed when he felt the tongue practically wrap around his own and tug on it, causing Jack to moan into the other’s mouth and he moved his hands back to grip onto Anti’s hair and deepen the kiss. Anti’s tongue was smooth and slick and felt wonderful as it navigated around his mouth, licking along everything and eventually going further towards the throat. Jack let out another louder moan but tugged on Anti’s hair enough to pull him back. Anti moved away but kept his mouth open with half lidded eyes and Jack could see the thin line of spit that still lingered between their lips. He also saw Anti’s longer tongue lazing from his mouth –definitely longer than a humans- and noticed that there was a small split at the end similar to a snake.

“O… okay… as much as I loved that, because I _really_ loved that, you have to remember that I need to breathe too.”

Anti nodded and then moved to kiss along his cheek and under his chin, then tilted his head up to kiss along the skin of his neck.

“You’re… you’re so beautiful…” Anti murmured. “I don’t want to take on anyone else’s form, I want to be as beautiful as you.”

“You don’t have to change your form for me either.” Jack added and closed his eyes to the feelings.

“But I can… I can edit it to adjust certain things… like mix and match…”

“Like that snake tongue you have?” Jack huffed.

Anti grinned and licked a streak along his neck.

“Yeah… I can… Jack, I want to make you feel good, in a way no one else can… I’ll make you feel so good, please, I’ll do whatever you want.”

“I just told you that I didn’t want you to only focus on me like that.”

“No… it’s not like that… I want to know what you like so I can give you the best kind of pleasure.”

The way Anti was talking, low and smooth, as he kissed along the sensitive part of Jack’s neck was making him begin to lose his mind and start to breathe in heavy pants.

“You’re already doin’ that.” Jack gasped out as Anti bit his neck.

“But…” Anti leaned back and Jack moved his hands to rest lightly on Anti’s hips, sensing the sudden change in atmosphere as it suddenly calmed down. “I want to do this right, too… I want this to work like a proper relationship.”

“Okay…” Jack hummed, steadying his breaths and rubbing slowly at Anti’s hips. “You want to take it slow? Slow is good, that’s totally okay.”

Anti smiled and pecked Jack’s lips again.

“I… I need some time to look into human relationships and… uh… better program some of the more physical aspects for it… my coding doesn’t really have much in the way of that right now…” Anti said quietly and looked to the side.

Awe, he was embarrassed, it was kind of adorable.

“That’s okay, take your time, I’ll be here.” Jack smiled.

When neither of them moved to get up, they pressed together to kiss again, turning into a gentle make out as Anti did odd tricks with his tongue that made Jack never want to leave the couch again. The being was more careful about his breathing this time, to which Jack was grateful, and would give him chances to catch his breath, though he would quickly dive his tongue back in, eager for more.

They finally got off the couch when Jack’s stomach grumbled for food, having not made breakfast this morning, and Anti quickly got up and said he would make something with a bright smile. Jack took a moment to calm down before joining Anti in the kitchen to help out even if Anti kept saying he wanted to do it himself.

Today was originally one of his free days, but Jack got a text after breakfast giving him a job at the base to do today, so he cleaned up and walked over to the door to get on with work. Anti followed him and didn’t hesitate to give Jack another tongue-filled kiss before he left.

“I just realized I haven’t said this yet…” Jack murmured when they broke apart.

“Hmm?” Anti hummed, looking content.

“I love you too.” Jack smiled and booped their noses together.

Yeah, this was definitely love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will probably have the smut... probably... I haven't written it yet... idk.
> 
> I have 5 other stories going on at the moment so my mind is a bit scrambled with everything, whoops.
> 
> Also, when I was writing this, I actually started tearing up at the "i'd pick you over my memories" thing and I had to get up and leave to chill out and stop myself from crying because for some reason I got so emotional there. I'm not supposed to be crying at my own stories, right???


	5. Programming Required

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember what I said about this being kind of like a practice book for me? Literally everything I know about... well, guys getting together is what I learned from reading other fanfics.
> 
> This book won't be rated E for explicit, it's really rated E for EFFORT! I'm trying!
> 
> *Mature Chapter Warning*

Anti started getting more daring in a way with their relationship, their two love confessions acting as some type of signal to the being that their relationship could progress. Not that Jack minded, no, he didn’t mind at all.

They haven’t gone as far as sex, like in-the-ass sex, or at least that’s what Jack had thought it would be when they got to that part. Ever since Anti had changed his form to look like that one woman, it really made the brunet think about what Anti could do with his body, honestly think, and he didn’t forget about that odd tongue the being had. His mind would go to weird places when he thought about it for too long, though.

However, they’ve done a lot of other things regarding their _intimacy._

At first, it was just kisses and gentle touches, Anti taking the time to get to know Jack’s body, lightly running his hands across the brunet’s arms and chest and hips. He would try to find sensitive areas, nipping along the human’s neck, by the shoulder, down the chest, and dabbing at those areas with his tongue when Jack would tweak at the touch. The being would search for the spots that caused the human to make any type of sound, finding them faster than Jack had anticipated and finding ones he himself hadn’t known about either.

Then one day, Jack had returned from a stressful mission, almost getting caught twice and narrowly escaping from the facility he had snuck into. He tiredly wandered over to the couch and flopped down on one of the cushions, resting his head on the back and letting out a heavy breath, wanting to relax. Anti materialized next to him, as what he usually did when they returned to the privacy of Jack’s quarters, and slowly moved over to sit on Jack’s lap, legs on either side of him.

“Tired?” Anti hummed the question as he carefully set his hands on the brunet’s cheeks, letting them roam up the sides of his face and through his hair, back down to his neck under his chin.

“Yes. You were there too, you saw what happened.” Jack huffed.

“I can help you relax.” Anti smirked as he pecked the brunet’s lips lightly.

“I am relaxing, can’t you see?”

“I can see that.” Anti smiled more as he pressed in for another kiss, licking along Jack’s bottom lip and delve his tongue in when the brunet parted his own lips.

Anti had learned quickly what to do to make Jack melt just from a kiss, rubbing against the other’s tongue, over the roof of his mouth, towards the back without causing any reflexes to act up, and the being heard the little hums and quiet moans the human would make when he did so.

“I… don’t think I can ever get used to that tongue you have.” Jack said through slow breathes when they parted for air.

“You like it, though.” Anti teased.

“Of course.” Jack huffed back as Anti moved down to latch onto a spot on the brunet’s neck.

Jack had already moved his hands down to the being’s hips, lightly rubbing a few fingers once in a while against the skin under Anti’s shirt, feeling the slightly cooler difference in temperature as he did so.

“I think I could do a lot of things with it.” Anti murmured between kisses on the brunet’s neck.

“Oh really?” Jack said lightly, too tired and falling into Anti’s touch to think too much about it.

“Mhmm…” The being started dragging his hands down, over Jack’s black t-shirt, jacket long gone and laying on the rack near the door. “I’m sure you’ve thought about it.” He slipped his hands underneath the thin fabric, sliding his hands up and adding cool pressure along the other’s sides.

“Have I?” Jack hummed quietly, mind already relaxing from the day’s earlier events.

“Mhmm…” Anti repeated, moving the t-shirt up to Jack’s shoulders, pressing up more to get him to lift his arms so the being could slip the shirt off over his head.

Anti rubbed his hands lightly down the brunet’s chest again, going down to the hips and pressed down harder there as he finally released his hold on Jack’s neck to kiss down to his collarbone. He nipped lightly there, smiling when he heard Jack gasp quietly, and moved his hands to the button of Jack’s jeans. He slowly unbuttoned the top of it, finding the zipper between his fingers and dragging it down as he added another more forceful nip.

“Anti…” Jack breathed out quietly, not having much meaning other than being something to say.

Anti stuck his tongue out, smoothing over a nipple, causing the brunet to jerk back a little from the unexpected motion only to be surprised again when the coded being dipped his hand underneath the band of his boxer briefs.

“C’mon.” Anti said softly, other hand also slipping underneath the band on Jack’s hip and pushing down to show the start of his v-line.

Anti tapped at the new skin there, getting Jack to lift his hips slightly off the couch so the being could slide both pairs of his clothing out from under him and to his thighs. The being continued leaving little nips and kisses along the brunet’s chest, smirking when he heard the human whining softly in anticipation. He then gently wrapped a hand around the brunet’s length and gave an experimental tug as the human whimpered.

“Relax.” Anti breathed oh so softly against the human’s neck, maneuvering off of his lap slightly to have more room.

Jack closed his eyes, head resting on the back of the couch again as Anti kissed down to his chest once more and gave another stroke of his hand. This was the being’s first time doing something with his dick, so Jack was expecting him to take his time or be cautious or curious or anything of that nature really, but it shouldn’t have been a surprise to him when Anti went straight to trying to find what made him fall apart. The being moved from the base up, adding pressure that made a strange warmth start to grow in the pit of his stomach as he keened and shut his eyes tighter. Jack never really did much in the ways of… self-release, he was always more focused on his work and never had a partner before. He was getting hard embarrassingly quick as the being pressed his thumb against the tip, smearing pre while using it to go a little faster, tightening his hand around the length more as the brunet let out quiet pants.

“Let me hear you…” Anti murmured as his tongue rubbed over a nipple once more. “How will I know if I’m doing it right if you keep quiet?”

Jack felt a haze run throughout his body, warmth spreading as he used what little control he had left to hold his hips down to prevent them from seeking more friction, biting his lips to keep in the noises rising up from his throat as Anti seemed to know just what to do in so little time.

“An-hnn…” He felt the sound slip from his lips as Anti jerked his hand a little more forcefully.

“Don’t hold back…” The being smiled against his chest. “This is for you, after all.”

Anti ran his thumb over the tip again, the brunet gasping and felt a shiver run up his spine as the heat blossomed into a thrumming under his skin. It wasn’t enough for the being, though, as he sighed and leaned back from the human’s chest.

“If you won’t let me hear you from this…” Anti smiled, “Then I’ll have to try something else.”

He got up out of the brunet’s lap only to move his knees down onto the ground and place his hands at the top of either of the human’s thighs where they met at the hips. Without any more warning, the being leaned down and took the top part of the human’s dick in his mouth, tongue laving on the underside of it as he looked up with glowing green eyes.

“Aah! S-shit, Anti…” The brunet gasped out.

“There you go.” Anti smirked as he slid his tongue off to speak only to wrap his mouth around it once more.

The brunet felt his mouth hang open, no longer having the strength to keep in any noises that rose up as the being pressed further down, eventually getting the entire length inside as that odd tongue of his wrapped around it and tugged.

“Fuucck! Anti-nnnh.”

The warmth in his stomach kept growing, fuzziness spreading as he felt his body start to tremble from the feeling on Anti’s warm slick tongue sliding along the sensitive skin. The being then started doing that strange purring rumble, vibrations making the pressure so much more as the brunet let go of the grip on the couch cushion to tangle his hands in green hair.

“Gah-anngh…! I- Anti, I’m-nnn…”

The being stared up at the human, smirking slightly as he strengthened whatever weird hold he had with his tongue and urged the human onwards, pushing him towards release. The brunet tightened his grip in the other’s hair as the warmth in his stomach turned to a pulsing heat, letting out whimpers and strangled moans. He felt his body tense up as he finally came inside the being’s mouth, pleasure rolling off in waves as the being hummed and took it all down. Jack was breathing heavily, letting go of the being’s hair as he let them fall to his sides and tried to regain his composure. Anti moved off his now softening length, giving a small lick on the tip that caused the brunet to shudder before standing up and sitting on the couch next to him once more.

“Feeling better?” Anti asked as he leaned on Jack’s shoulder and pecked his neck lightly.

“Y-yeah.” Jack breathed out as he finally opened his eyes and turned his head to see the being smiling at him.

Jack tugged his pants back up, buttoning it loosely before looking back at Anti and leaning over to brush his nose against the being’s cheek.

“What about you…?” Jack asked softly but the being only shook his head and tucked it underneath Jack’s to rest against his chest.

Anti was like that for a while, finding times to pleasure Jack without asking for anything in return. He finally asked about when the two of them were laying together in bed, Anti laying over him as usual when they were about to sleep. The being responded by explaining how he didn’t _need_ to do so; it wasn’t a normal function he was used to. He tried to explain it in computer terms, saying how his coding didn’t have the “program enabled” which is why he never needed any type of reciprocation; that was also what he has been working on when he said he needed to “better program some of the more physical aspects for it” before.

“It feels weird not to do anything for you, though.” Jack hummed as they were laying together.

“I’m working on it.” Anti huffed, nuzzling his chest. “It’s… a weird thing to try to program.”

Jack hummed softly as a response before finally letting his mind drift off to sleep.

Their relationship was going well, though; enough that Mark and Felix somehow caught on. Jack was sitting with them at the dining hall, eating lunch together as the other two males eyed him.

“Okay, spill, who is it?” Felix asked with a knowing grin as Mark watched with a goofy smile.

“What?” Jack frowned as he took a sip of soda.

“You are _so_ seeing someone here; you can’t lie to us.” Felix continued and raised his eyebrows expectantly.

“What makes you think that?” Jack asked, playing dumb.

“You’ve been all bubbly lately, smiling a lot and you’ve seemed less stressed and lone-wolfy.” Mark chuckled.

“Lone-wolfy?” Jack quirked an eyebrow.

“Yeah, you’re always so secretive and acting like you don’t want to talk to anyone, but now we’re hanging out here more and talking!” Felix nodded.

“Well, I’m not seeing any Eclipse agent or anyone here.” Jack huffed, and it was true, Anti wasn’t an Eclipse agent and didn’t work here… officially.

“Lies.” Felix pouted and leaned over on the table more.

“I’m not lying.” Jack rolled his eyes.

“Aw, c’mon, why won’t you tell us?” Mark made puppy eyes.

“I did tell you; I’m not seeing any agent here.”

“So… you’re seeing someone outside?” Felix said with wide eyes.

“How about this, I’m not dating any human on this planet.” Jack crossed his arms, and it was true again, Anti wasn’t a normal human, he could very well be classified as something else.

“Alien!” Mark played along.

“I’m not dating an alien either.” Jack laughed.

“If you won’t tell us now, fine, but we’ll find out sooner or later.” Felix smiled. “We _are_ some of the most skilled agents in the world who sneakily uncover secrets for a living.”

“I’d like to see him try to get through the defense systems I have.” Anti messaged through the phone, Jack reading it and letting out another laugh.

“The phone! Get the phone!” Felix yelped as he reached across the table and tried to snatch the device out of Jack’s hand, failing, but trying none the less.

They messed around more, or rather Felix did, getting out of his seat and running over to Jack’s side to try to grab the phone once more, Jack standing on top of his seat to hold it up while Mark stayed put and laughed at the scene playing on. They all paused when they all got a new mission, though, and sat down to read it.

All three of them got the same one.

“Oh? They want you working with us this time.” Felix hummed with a frown.

It was another mission under Project Maker.

“Have you guys been getting these missions lately? Stuff under Project Maker?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, it seems this is another big one.” Mark nodded. “They had Fe and I go to another state pretty far off a few days ago for one of the missions.”

“One of the hacking missions I got was kind of weird.” Felix added. “It’s like they’re… doing some type of experimentation… but they’re very good at hiding the information. Like, you know that one anime where the guys were looking for clues and it led them to a recipe book about pie or something and they had to spend days and days just to uncover the tiniest clue? It’s like that except we don’t have any type of lead really.”

“I wish this was just a mission about evil pie or something.” Mark sighed. “That would be so much easier to deal with.”

“Well… at least we have a few days to prepare.” Jack hummed.

They parted ways after discussing the mission a bit, Jack returning to his room so he could properly talk to Anti about it as well.

“I’ve never worked with them before.” Anti said as he cuddled up to Jack’s side on the couch.

“Felix and Mark are cool; really good at what they do, too.” Jack murmured as he thought about it. “I think it’d probably be best if you stayed more with Felix, though. Not actually talk to him or anything, but he usually stays here or in a hidden room with a lot of technology and screens up to monitor us and you’d get more information there than staying with me on the field. You’re also going to have to keep an eye on Mark, too, since he’s going to be on the field with me.”

Anti nodded in understanding.

“Have you thought about telling them…” The being added more softly.

“I have…” Jack replied just as quietly. “But… I’m afraid of what could happen. I don’t want something to happen to you… I don’t want to lose you.”

“No one will be able to take me away from you that easily.” Anti tried to reassure, but the discomfort in the air was obvious.

It was one of Jack’s free days, thankfully, so he spent the rest of the day relaxing in his room sharing comforting embraces with Anti. That night, Anti laid over him on their bed as usual and purred while they cuddle closely to one another. The being was trying his best to make the human feel better and he appreciated it, kissing the top of the being’s head lightly before sleep took over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did my best ;; I hope you guys thought it was okay (and please don't complain about it if you didn't).
> 
> On a side note, I've gotten a lot of comments of people saying they're really liking this book and you guys really make it seem like I'm on the right path! So I'm going to keep doing my best to make this story as good as it can be!  
> （‐＾▽＾‐）


	6. Want to Love You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since there are the three agents talking to each other along with Anti who made himself only audible to Jack, I made them all normal quotes while Anti is in italics while talking through the earpieces to try to make is a little less confusing.
> 
> *mature chapter warning*  
> *or should I say smexy chapter warning ;3*  
> ... ignore my stupidity

“Okay, everything is all set.” Felix’s voice rang through the earpieces as Jack and Mark were waiting outside the building of their next mission.

They were wearing fancy suits, Jack wearing his tech glasses and other accessories as usual while Mark had his own designs.

“Ready to impress some strangers?” Mark winked, fiddling with the Eclipse standard cuff, scrolling through the hologram screen before closing it and pulling his sleeve back up.

“I just want to get some kind of definitive answer about what this whole Maker Project is.” Jack sighed

 _”Felix has a lot of screens going on.”_ Anti hummed.

The being had done what Jack suggested, having his main coding reside with Felix’s setup, multiple screens up with all types of information regarding the mission and the two agents preparing to go into the building. He tapped into Jack’s earpiece to speak to Jack privately without the others hearing him, though Jack couldn’t really respond back without the others noticing.

“They have a lot of security measures, I won’t be able to get to them without setting off some type of signal that it has changed, but I got to the cameras so I’ll be able to see you guys when you get inside.” Felix informed.

 _”He’s right.”_ Anti added. _”I’m looking at the coding myself; we’d be able to hack into it if we wanted, but it would be noticeable and it would be best not to raise any suspicions.”_

“Let’s get to it!” Mark smiled widely as he stepped up to the front door and entered, Jack following behind.

They walked up to the front desk of the building, reminding the two of them of a research office of some type, and waited for the receptionist to finish typing something on the computer in front of her before looking up at them.

“How may I help you two?” She asked with a practiced smile.

“I’m David Johnson, this is my business partner Kyle Evans.” Mark introduced with a bright smile as Jack stood behind slightly with crossed arms and a stern look. “We have a meeting with Dr. Broon.”

The receptionist typed something into the computer and nodded a few moments later.

“Ah, yes, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Evans, I’ll let him know you’re here.”

They waited in the room for a few minutes, no chairs for either of them to sit on, but it didn’t take long for a man in a dark suit and red tie walk out from the door in the back with a professional smile. He had neatly combed dark brown hair and a clean shaven face. There were two rings on his right hand that were very obvious to see as the man held out his hand to Mark first, then Jack as he introduced himself.

“Hello, my name is Nile Broon, I’ve been looking forward to your visit.”

“Likewise.” Mark responded while Jack just nodded.

The two of them were, of course, playing fake characters while Mark was acting as more of the cheerful and lighthearted character with Jack as more serious and focused more on their business meeting. It was a little like good cop bad cop. They were pretending to be meeting with Dr. Broon, one of the men in charge of the office and a researcher of types. They were here to get a tour of the building and see if they could find out more about what Dr. Broon is researching specifically. Eclipse has labeled him as one of the groups connected to Project Maker, still unsure as to who the main boss is, but finding out about the associating groups should still give them information.

“You guys are looking sharp!” Felix teased through the earpieces. “I got cameras up on the whole building and it seems like there’s some interesting stuff goin’ on. Go ahead with the tour and when you have a quick break, get yourselves out of his sight and we’ll go from there.”

“If you would come right this way.” Dr. Broon gestured politely as he started leading the way back to the doors he came from.

Mark and Jack followed, playing their parts as Mark asked lots of questions and smiled brightly while Jack stayed silent and intimidating. The tour was generic; they saw some of the rooms and met a few other workers in the middle of a project. Dr. Broon would occasionally show them statistics and the progress of some of their more simple projects, though the Eclipse agents knew he was keeping quiet about their other more important ones.

“It makes me delighted to see new faces taking an interest in our work.” Dr. Broon said as they took a break from the tour to rest in one of the open meeting rooms. “Should the two of you agree that your business would like to work with us, I would be more than happy to welcome you.” He then viewed something on his phone. “Seeing as this is still a working day, I still have business to attend to and tasks to review, but it should only take a few minutes. While I see to that, you may take the time to discuss between yourselves and think of any questions you may like to ask when I return.”

The two agents nodded politely and watched as he left the room, giving it a few moments before they heard Felix speak to them.

“Alright, I have him on camera, I’ll keep an eye out while you guys look around. Once you leave the room, go left and down the hall ‘till you get to the door labeled ‘study’. There’s a lot of rooms past there that seem like it’ll help and the cameras don’t have a clear shot of them.”

“Understood.” Jack replied and the two of them exited the meeting room they were in, following Felix’s instructions and finding the door quickly.

The door led to another hallway with more doors on either side, some having windows to look through while others were covered.

“There aren’t any guards walking around or anything, only other workers in some of the rooms, but the doors are quiet so you should be able to sneak in and take a peak.” Felix informed.

The two of them decided to split up, Mark taking the left side while Jack went to the right. Felix talked them through most of it, telling them which rooms had people and which were empty. They went rather quickly, not knowing when Dr. Broon would return. They took pictures of documents that seemed useful, recording a bit of the workers when they could sneak in without them noticing, and downloaded a few files from the computers in empty rooms manually without being put on the radar from hacking. Jack and Mark met up together at the end of the hall, only one room left that Felix said might be worth checking out before they were to return to the meeting room where Dr. Broon had left them.

“There are three people in there, but there is a counter right by the door you can hide behind and they are all in the back of the room.” Felix said.

The agents decided to take the chance, silently opening the door and sneaking in while keeping close to the ground. The room was dimmed down, most of the light coming from monitors towards the back of the room where the three workers were by. There were files and papers spread out around them with more information up on the screens.

“We won’t be able to get anything from the computers with them there.” Mark whispered.

They both took out their phones, taking pictures of the screens and recording a little bit to get what information they could before deciding there was nothing else they could do and leave.

“Heads up, that one doctor guy is heading towards the room you’re in.” Felix warned.

Jack and Mark quickly moved to the other side of the room, hiding behind a table behind the door as it was opened quickly when Dr. Broon walked in.

“What is it?” He called out as the other three workers in the room turned around to face him.

“Someone from Primary wanted to talk to you.” One of the workers responded as Dr. Broon joined them by the monitors.

The monitor in the middle flashed as one of the workers started a video call, only having one ring before the other side picked up.

“Sir.” Dr. Broon greeted as a new face appeared on the screen.

Jack and Mark peeked out from their hiding spots, looking at the screen and seeing the man referred to as “sir” on the monitor. He seemed older than Dr. Broon, wearing a nice formal outfit as well with combed hair that was a mixture of black and silver. His heavy eyebrows were lowered down as his lip curled to a frown, looking serious from the moment the monitor revealed his face.

“Your team’s last report did not show the results I was hoping for, Broon.” The intimidating man stated.

“I am aware, sir, but it is not something we can simply guess numbers on and run tests. Finding subjects is already an obstacle, we want to be wise about our resources and want our data to show promise before the testing as to not waste anything.”

“Are you seeing this?” Mark whispered to Felix.

“Yep.” Felix replied. “Suspicious indeed.”

“I am aware of our resources, Broon, and time is one of them. I expect you to find the problem and fix it by the time the next report comes in. You already know it is possible; I want results.”

“But, sir, you know that one time was not a part of our research, you cannot expect us to recreate something when there are no records of it-“

“I don’t want to hear excuses.” The man snapped.

 _”That’s…”_ Anti sounded odd through the earpiece.

Jack couldn’t respond to Anti, but even with one word, he knew something was up.

“I am providing materials and funding for your team, do not disappoint me.” The man added.

“I understand, sir, but this experiment would take years upon years for normal scientific research to even try to touch.” Dr. Broon tried to reason, looking stressed.

 _”He’s…”_ Anti murmured again, causing Jack to become concerned.

“Woah, something is going on with the monitors here.” Felix hummed.

“We are not bound by ‘normal scientific research’ Broon, unless you are saying I was wrong to choose you to lead one of the branches.”

“No, sir, I can assure you I am an asset.”

The monitors in the room flickered for a second, causing the three workers to frown in confusion. The man on the screen spoke something, but the audio was distorted as the screen blurred with pixels.

“What is going on?” Dr. Broon huffed annoyingly to the workers, glaring at one of them who was typing on one of the keyboards.

“I’m not sure, we’re getting some type of disrupting signal or something.”

 _”He’s the one…”_ Anti said almost shakily.

“Okay, something is seriously wrong here, I think you guys might want to get out of there.” Felix informed.

Mark bumped Jack’s shoulder, circling his hand in a small area to gesture for the brunet to follow as they started to sneak out of the room.

“We should not be having any type of… buffering.” Dr. Broon grumbled as the workers argued between themselves.

 _”He’s the one who did this to me…”_ Anti said lowly, almost growling in a way that made Jack tense up as a shiver ran up his spine.

There was a loud electrical snap as the lights shut off and the monitors buzzed and went black. The Eclipse agents quickly made their escape as they ran back towards the “study” door to return to the main halls. They were thankful they didn’t run into any other workers when they were out there, finding their way back to the hall by the meeting rooms as they quickly walked together.

“Which one was the one we were in? Was it 101? 102?” Mark mumbled.

“I didn’t check the number.” Jack huffed back, still worried about Anti and not feeling any better when he couldn’t try to talk to the being.

They heard a door open widely and turned to see Dr. Broon walking towards them with a frown.

“Oh, our apologies for leaving the room.” Mark smiled easily, returning to his fake character as the other man joined them. “We heard a peculiarly loud sound as the lights went out and became concerned, not wanting there to be a fire or some type of emergency.”

“Ah yes…” The man hummed, rubbing the side of his face as he let out a heavy breath. “I would like to apologize for the inconvenience this may cause, but we will have to discuss our business deals at a later time.”

“That’s quite alright.” Mark nodded. “I hope things get better here, I know how much I’d hate to work in the dark.”

“Let me walk you to the door.” Dr. Broon offered as he led the two of them down the hall back towards the entrance.

The lights returned shortly afterwards and they waved to the receptionist when they returned to the front office, shaking hands with Dr. Broon once more before parting ways and exiting through the front.

“Okay, that was weird.” Felix muttered.

“What happened?” Mark questioned as they walked to Mark’s car that they both rode in.

“I don’t know, everything was going fine and then that man showed up on the monitor screen and next thing you know, the monitors here get all screwy and it seems their building did too.” Felix huffed.

Anti had gone quiet and Jack decided to text the being through his phone.

“Were you doing anything?” Mark asked.

“No, I was just watching you guys on camera.”

“Well, obviously something is going on.” Mark frowned.

“We might want to go back later at night or some time when there aren’t any people there to get more info.” Felix suggested.

“What do you think, Jack?” Mark asked, though the brunet was too focused on his phone to realize he was being spoken to.

“Jack?” Felix added.

“What? Huh?” Jack picked his head up from the phone.

“We’re thinking about going back on a later day to see what information we can get while everyone is gone.” Mark restated.

“Oh… uh… yeah.” Jack murmured.

Anti hadn’t responded.

Jack stayed quiet the rest of the ride home while Mark and Felix talked back and forth about what happened. Neither of them could come to some conclusion as to what happened, but Jack was fairly certain it had something to do with Anti. The brunet was feeling antsy, trying not to outwardly show it as the car rolled up to the Eclipse parking area and the two agents got out. They walked together back to the main hall, meeting Felix there as they talked a bit more.

“I’m gonna head back to my room.” Jack said as he excused himself, wanting to try to contact Anti again without trying to keep it secret from the others.

“Alright, I’ll go ahead and make the report.” Felix nodded as they parted ways.

Jack quickly walked to his room, putting in the code and opening the door to see Anti sitting on the couch with his head down and his hands clutching his hair.

“Anti!” Jack said in surprise, walking over to him and sitting down next to him. “What… what happened?”

The being was silent.

“Anti?” Jack put a hand on his shoulder only to have the being jerk back violently and get off of the couch, moving to stand a few feet away.

“He…” Anti said almost out of breath before frowned and glaring at Jack. “He’s the one who did this to me!” He snapped.

The being’s form starting flickering, eyes glowing dully as he grit his teeth and clenched his hands. The air around him seemed to spark with some type of heavy electricity that Jack could practically feel in the air and it was, frankly, quite terrifying. The brunet knew that the being wasn’t human and could be dangerous… but now he was finally _seeing_ it, almost as if he didn’t believe it until now. Anti looked angry, bristling in place as the air crackled quietly and his voice buzzed eerily.

“He’s the one who did this!”

Anti kept saying that, but Jack didn’t understand it completely. Did _what?_

“Anti, you need to calm down.” Jack tried to reason.

“He… he was there, he was the one who made this happen. He caused it!” Anti’s voice started glitching between anger and disbelief, almost as if he was going to break down into a panic or start crying.

“What are you talking about? Did what?” Jack questioned.

Anti had moved his head to stare at his hands only to snap it back up when he heard Jack ask that question. The sparking died down, form still flickering but the being’s eyes returned to normal as unshed tears appeared in the corner of his eyes.

“I… I don’t…” Anti finally broke, collapsing onto his knees as he held his hands shakily out in front of him to stare at them once more.

Jack was scared, still very much scared about what Anti could do and how dangerous he could be right now. The agent part of his mind was telling him he needed to keep his distance and use caution, but the human part of his mind wanted to comfort the being and hold him in his arms. Once again, the brunet followed his human mind. He quickly moved over to Anti, kneeling down on the floor next to the being as he wrapped his arms around the being’s shaking figure and brought him towards his chest. Through the time Jack as known the being, he learned that the being isn’t familiar with emotions and has trouble understanding them. There wasn’t a lot Jack knew about Anti, in fact, he wasn’t even sure Anti really knew about himself either.

It was a mess.

Jack held the shaking figure in his arms, looking around the room in hopes of coming up with some idea as to what he could do to make Anti feel better, and looked to the couch. He carefully picked up the being in his arms, carrying him over to the couch and setting him down on the floor while propping him up against the bottom of the couch. The brunet then quickly grabbed two of the chairs by the small dining table, bringing them over to the couch as well and putting them a bit farther out from the couch on the left and right of it. He then ran to the bedroom to grab a large blanket and returned to the other room, setting it up against the back of the couch before dragging it out over to the small chairs, effectively making a blanket ceiling over the couch and chairs as the sides draped down to act as walls. Jack lifted up one of the sides and crawled underneath it, wrapping his arms around Anti once more as the two of them sat underneath the little blanket fort.

Anti looked up hesitantly, looking around at the blanket and feeling a strange sense of security and calmness before looking over at Jack with a small frown.

“How are you feeling?” Jack asked as he rest their foreheads together.

“I… what is this?” Anti chose to say instead.

“A blanket fort. Most people like to play around with it when they’re kids… I don’t know why I thought it would help.” Jack said quietly.

“Oh… I like it.” Anti said, seeming to have calmed down. “… emotions are weird.”

“Yeah…”

Jack wanted to ask about the man on the video call, insanely curious as to who he was and why it made Anti act in the way that he did, but the brunet didn’t want to cause the being to lose control of his emotions again, seeing as they fluctuated rather quickly here.

“Are you feeling better, though?” Jack asked once more.

“… it was… I felt so… I’m sorry, I don’t think I can talk about it right now.” Anti hummed, defeated.

“Okay, that’s alright.” Jack replied as he gently placed a kiss on the being’s lips.

They stayed like that for a while, Jack doing his best to comfort the being as they sat together underneath the blanket. It was obvious to see that Anti was struggling with his emotions again, something that Jack didn’t like seeing, but the most he could do right now was wait for the being to feel better so he can properly talk about it then.

 

…

 

A few days later, Jack, Mark, and Felix returned to the same facility, this time when it was after hours, but there were still people working there.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever find a time when no one is there, but that one doctor guy isn’t here.”

Jack and Mark snuck in, avoiding the rooms that still had people working while manually hacking into the computers of the rooms they hadn’t gotten to last visit. Jack had told Anti he should relax back at the base, assuring the being that he would be alright since it was just a simple infiltrate and gather information job. It was a quick mission, get in, get the info, and get out. It didn’t take them long, and once they got what they needed, the two agents snuck out quickly and drove back to the base. Felix received the information and worked on decoding it while the others were driving, but as they made it back to the base, they heard Felix laugh sarcastically.

“Guess what we got?” He asked the rhetorical question. “Another set of info with such weird-ass code words that make no sense!”

“Fun.” Mark huffed.

Once the agents met up at the main hall, they said their goodbyes as Jack returned to his room once more. This time, he found Anti laying on the bed, not asleep, but still out of it.

“Hey.” Jack said softly as he changed into pajamas and lied down in the bed with the other.

“How’d the mission go?” Anti asked just as softly.

“Got the info but it’s still coded.”

“Hmm.”

“What are you thinking?” The brunet asked as he gently ran a hand through the being’s hair softly.

He could tell the being was still troubled with something, his face in a small frown as his eyes never met the brunet’s.

“Nothing.” Anti answered.

Jack knew it was a lie, but he didn’t want to push it.

 

…

 

Some day later, the two of them were sitting on the living area couch, Jack scrolling through documents on a hologram screen while Anti thought to himself.

“This was a mistake.” Anti finally mumbled, still not looking at Jack’s eyes as he said that.

“What is?” Jack frowned, immediately closing the hologram and turning to face the other.

“…being together like this.” Anti murmured.

“What… you mean…” Jack said quietly.

“Jack, I’m not _human_ , I was stupid to even think this could work.” Anti sighed with a frown, obviously annoyed with himself.

“Why? Why do you think that?” Jack asked, feeling a pang in his chest at Anti’s words. “Look at me, Anti, please.”

Anti turned his head, looking at Jack with glossy eyes as he held back tears of his own.

“You deserve someone better than me, someone human, someone who you don’t have to keep a secret from everyone else and isn’t some inhumane creation like me who was made for destruction.”

“Anti… I…” Jack said softly, words shifting through his mind as he tried to think of something to say and let out a sad hum.

The brunet decided to let his actions speak for him as he cupped the being’s cheeks and kissed him softly, conveying his emotions through the motion and felt a small amount of relief when the other kissed back.

“You know I don’t care if you’re a normal human or not.” Jack murmured as he gently brushed his thumbs on the being’s cheeks reassuringly. “And it doesn’t matter to me why you were made, only that you are here with me now and know you follow your own rules and not from whoever was part of your creation.”

Anti looked to the side, still troubled, and Jack let out another sigh.

“How can I show you that I love you for you, Anti, and not some other human.” Jack asked, turning the being’s head back to look at him again as he kissed the being’s nose.

Anti murmured something, to quiet for the human to make out as he bumped their noses together.

“Speak up, angel.”

Anti’s eyes widened at the nickname, a name that meant something _good_ , something graceful and universally seen as a blessing.

“I…” Anti started and huffed as he reworded his sentence over and over in his head. “I think I figured out the programming… for the physical parts… and I adjusted my outward physical senses so… I can feel more…”

“Mhmm.” Jack hummed to show he was listening as he bumped their noses together once more. “What do you want to do?” The brunet added as he leaned back to smile softly, eyes showing gentle reassurance to comfort the other.

“I… I searched through things that… people did together… and I want to…” He mumbled the end again and Jack laughed quietly.

“You can tell me, angel, it’s alright.” Jack smiled and kissed the being’s cheek playfully.

“Love…” Anti murmured. “I want us to make love.”

Jack smiled, leaning over to kiss Anti on the lips, feeling their tongues slide together as Anti hesitantly put his hands on the human’s shoulders. Jack tilted the being’s head back a little, deepening the kiss and smiled when he felt Anti tense from surprise.

“How do you want to do it?” Jack hummed when they parted.

“You… you want to do it now?” Anti asked, not expecting Jack to agree with him.

“Do you?” The brunet asked.

“…yeah.”

“Then how are we going to do it?” Jack restated.

“You’ve never… before, right?” Anti asked hesitantly.

“Nope.”

“Then I was thinking, for your first time, you should take the lead.” Anti said a little more confidently.

Jack snuck his arms around Anti’s sides, lifting him up from the couch as he started walking over to the bedroom. Seeing as Anti didn’t have a normal human body, he sometimes made his form lighter than normal for Jack to do things such as lifting him up like the brunet was doing now. The human smiled, placing Anti on the bed carefully while putting a hand on either side of the being’s head and leaning down for another kiss. Anti seemed to have built up more confidence after realizing the human wanted the same things he did, kiss back with tongue and bringing his hands up to grip the brunet’s hair to force the human closer.

“So… new programming?” Jack murmured between kisses, lips brushing against the being’s as he spoke.

“Yeah…” Anti replied, running his hands down the human’s sides and underneath his shirt. “Like I told you… I added better touch senses… programmed the physical parts so it… functions like a human’s… and a… something else.”

“Something else?” Jack asked teasingly.

“Well, I’m not biologically a human so I don’t have the… well, biological material that comes from… you know.”

“You’re adorable when you act shy about this stuff.” Jack smiled as he captured Anti’s lips once more, letting the being remove his shirt. “What about your clothes?”

“Easy.” Anti smirked as his shirt flickered and disappeared, leaving the two of them only wearing pants.

Anti wrapped his arms around the human’s bare shoulders, bringing the skin to press against each other closely as they placed gentle kisses against each other’s faces. It was slow, movements careful as Jack moved down to the being’s neck and placed openmouthed kisses there, occasionally biting the being’s skin, causing the other to shudder.

“Nice?” Jack hummed as he kissed down to the being’s collarbone.

“T-the senses are… more intense than I anticipated.” Anti gasped as Jack ran his fingers down the being’s side.

“Good intense?”

“Y-yeah.”

Jack smiled as he finally got the chance to do something for the being, kissing down his stomach and running his fingers across the bare skin, watching the other shiver from the feeling before lacing their hands together as he moved back up to the being’s lips again.

“Is there anything I need to know beforehand?” Jack asked, sitting up and leaning over to the drawer by the bed to grab a small bottle lube. “You need this?”

“I designed everything right now to resemble that of a normal human so… probably.” Anti answered, grabbing the human’s shoulders once more to bring him back down, tongues sliding together as the two started a slow rut against one another.

Their breathing slowly turned to quiet pants, Anti still clinging to the human, pressing their bodies together while the brunet’s hands continued to caress the other. The being started getting restless, wanting to move on as he grabbed the hem of the human’s pants and tugged on them. The brunet chuckled, moving down to unbutton the clothes before sliding them down to leave him in his boxers, and the being did the same. They continued with their slow grinding, the being getting more bold as time went on as he licked the outer edge of the human’s ear before nipping the side of it. Soon, the being tugged on the human’s underwear and removed it quickly, doing the same to himself as he ran a hand through the human’s hair.

Jack pecked the being’s lips as he grabbed the bottle that was thrown to the side of the bed and opened it, coating three of his fingers with the cool substance before bringing his hand down between the being’s legs. The brunet doesn’t pause between kisses as he slowly eased a finger into the coded being, feeling the other gasp and hum into his mouth. Anti closed his eyes and made a strange whining sound, gripping onto the brunet more as his tongue licked along the inside of the human’s mouth.

“You doing okay?” Jack murmured as he felt the subtle stretching with each movement.

“Its… weird.” Anti breathed out. “I’ve n-never felt something like this before.”

Jack made a soft hum in response before adding a second finger, making gentle scissoring movements as the being arched slightly and whined again, panting getting a little louder. Even so, their touches were still calm and sweet, emotions getting through to one another without much need for words. When the brunet added a third finger, the being whined out a moan as his head tilt backwards, giving the human more room to suck along his neck.

“Jack…” The being whimpered, opening his eyes to give the human his best pleading look.

“Okay.” The human smiled, bumping his nose against the being’s neck lovingly before leaning back once more to grab the bottle and add more of the substance to his hand, rubbing it onto his length before leaning down to the being once more.

“Ready?” He asked and the being nodded, spreading his legs more in emphasis as he grabbed the human’s cheeks and brought him down for a bruising kiss.

The human lined himself up, touching against the being before pressing the tip inside. The being’s breath hitched before he pushed back against the human, wanting more as the brunet slowly eased himself inside until he was fully settled.

“J-Jack…nnn.” The being hummed.

Both of them were breathing through their mouths, eyes closed as they stayed still and took in the feelings. Once Anti told him to move, the brunet eased out half way before pushing back in, both of them grunting with the movement. The human continued with his easy pace, not wanting to hurt the being, especially since he didn’t know much about his form, but the being soon hooked his legs around the human’s waist and urged him onwards. The brunet pulled almost all the way out to thrust back inside, causing the being to moan.

“That f-feels so… hnnn…”

The human thought about the being, knowing how he always wanted to make the human feel good and help him, and decided to try something. He brought one hand down to grip the being’s hip as he thrusted again, adding more force and speeding up lightly before pushing in again and again. The being moaned louder, mouth open and hands fidgeting between holding the human or the sheets underneath.

“Anti…” Jack started. “Y-you feel so good around me, angel, so good.”

The being’s moan glitched a little as he looked up at the brunet, eyes showing surprise. The brunet’s hand moved from the being’s hip down to his thigh, hiking the leg up higher as he thrusted in deeper.

“God, you’re so good for me, angel, feel so right… so perfect.”

The being made some type of buzzing whine as he captured the brunet’s lips again, tongue sliding inside and forcefully licking along the other’s mouth.

Jack was right in his guess; Anti liked praise.

They moved together with each push, bodies rocking and moans muffled between kisses as they got closer and closer towards their peaks. The brunet kept murmuring praises, telling the being how beautiful he was, how much he loved the other and how perfect he felt. He quickened the pace once more, feeling the being tense underneath him.

“Doin’ so well.” The brunet murmured, breaths shared with proximity as they shared openmouthed kisses and heavy moans.

The being tense again, but this time Jack felt something spark between them, sending a jolt of energy through his own body as thrusted in on instinct.

“O-oh, Anti, mmh…!”

The being’s body seemed to spark with some type of electricity, some type of energy that went through to the human where they were connected and it sent waves of pleasure through both of them. It was warm and intense and they both struggled to take even breaths as they kept moving.

“I… I think ‘m c-close.” Anti muttered, angling the human’s head so they could rest their foreheads together.

“Me too.”

The human brought his other hand down to Anti’s other thigh, holding both of them now as he bent them closer towards the being’s chest and thrusted in, feeling the slide in an almost desperate pace. The being arched his back, pushing against the human’s chest as he did so, and clenched around the human as he let out a silent moan and released between the two of them, sparks of pleasure jolting through to the brunet as he buried himself deep inside the being and came as well.

They took deep breaths, relaxing from what they had just done as the brunet set the being’s legs down and put his forearms up on either side of the being’s head to hold himself up. Once they calmed down enough, Jack placed gentle kisses on Anti's cheek before rubbing their cheeks together and kissing under his ear.

“That was…”

“Different.” Jack chuckled lightly.

“Good different.”

“Definitely.”

Anti smiled and brushed his nose against the human’s cheek as well, bringing a hand down to the human’s ass and playfully gripped it, making the human roll his hips forward, still inside the being, and hummed softly.

“Anti, I know you’re not human and all, but you gotta give me some time before I can go at it again.” Jack huffed with a smile.

Anti just hummed, hand staying on the other’s ass as he continued kissing along the skin he could reach without moving too much. Eventually Jack leaned back and ran a hand down Anti’s chest, getting a small bit of the strangely clear substance that came from Anti and lifted his hand up between the two of them.

“So… this is your version of ‘biological material’ huh?” Jack teased.

“Obviously it doesn’t work like that.” Anti huffed. “It’s just something I made to act as a substitute.”

“You’re funny.” Jack chuckled, giving a few small thrusts just to mess with the being, both of them moaning softly, before the human pulled out and rolled to the side to get off of the bed.

“How is that funny?” The being frowned and Jack only shrugged.

“Are you water proof?” Jack decided to say instead.

“As long as I don’t do anything that requires some type of electrical response or any type of similar energy, then it should be fine.”

“So no sex in the shower?” Jack teased once more.

“I didn’t say that.” Anti smirked, getting up off the bed as well and walking over to the human to wrap his arms around the human’s shoulders, leaning forward to nip at the other’s lips before the human escaped and walked over to the shower.

“C’mon, let’s go get cleaned up.” Jack hummed.

The two of them walked into the bathroom, Jack starting the shower and waiting for it to warm up before getting in, gesturing for the being to do the same as they started cleaning one another off.

They were both grateful for Eclipse having soundproof walls for privacy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's gonna hurt in the morning... I mean, hey guys!  
> Surprised to see that Jack was the one who topped first? Well, I have plans for Anti to get his chance too.


	7. Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm keeping the italics for when Anti speaks to Jack privately to make it easier

“So, what do you remember?”

Jack and Anti were resting together on the couch of Jack’s room; the brunet had an arm around the being’s shoulders who was resting his head on the brunet’s chest. Jack was gently running his other hand through the being’s hair, wanting to comfort him.

“It’s… hard to make out.” Anti responded, looking down at the brunet’s chest as he held onto the other lightly. “My memories of when I was first created are… hazy. I have most of my memories stored in a type of database in my coding but… I am certain someone intentionally messed with my earlier memories so I can’t recall much. But… that man on the screen during that mission… although my memories are locked or hidden or jumbled… it seems they aren’t completely gone.”

“Who was he?” Jack asked.

“I… I don’t remember his name. I remember waking up in a dark room, there were a lot of monitors and other workers there… the room was a mess… and then there was him. Everyone else’s faces are blurred and I can’t recall much, but I can see his face clearly now, with that wicked smile and his hands folded in front of him as he looked at me like I was some… _thing_ he finally had in his possession rather than a person.” Anti frowned, growing tense but relaxed when the brunet placed a kiss on top of his head. “I remember that he was the one in charge. He was giving orders to the others to do things… there were tests and procedures and… a lot of pain.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.” Jack sighed, wanting to hold the being closer to his chest.

“I didn’t have anywhere to go… I didn’t even know what _living_ was, I just followed orders… it was the only thing I knew to do. I hacked into a lot of places and retrieved a lot of information… it’s all a blur really. Later, others would find out about me and try to make me do things for themselves… if they weren’t terrified of me.”

It was silent for a while as Jack placed reassuring kisses on the being’s head once more and tried to comfort the being, feeling sympathy as well as frustration for those people who treated Anti the way they did.

“I didn’t have any friends… I didn’t have anything.” Anti said sadly. “But… then you got into one of the computers that I had access to, one of the facilities that was connected… and… you didn’t look like… like you wanted to hurt someone… you didn’t have that dark expression or that aura that everyone else had. So while you were downloading the file you had hacked into the computer for, I added my coding in the download as well. I helped you escape and… you know what happened from there.”

Jack continued leaving gentle touches on the being, murmuring quiet words of comfort, as he thought about what Anti explained until he realized something.

“That building I found you at was where I originally found the Maker files. You said that building was part of the ones you had access to… which involves that guy who you said was the boss of this operation… They’re all connected… but that means you’re part of Project Maker too.” Jack frowned.

“I suppose I’d be related to it in a way… but I don’t recognize the code words or anything they are using to hide their information.”

“But if you were made by the guy in charge himself, then you have to have information on him and what he’s doing. Anti, you said your memories were messed with, but they’re not gone. If we can find out how to clear up your memories a bit, you should be able to decode the information we have.” Jack said, looking hopeful as he figured out clues to solving the stressful job that was solving the mystery behind Project Maker.

“I… I guess we can try, but I don’t know where we would start.”

“You said you had access to the computers at their facilities, you can just go back to those and get the information there.” Jack answered.

“N-no, I can’t!” Anti said quickly, leaning back and looking terrified.

Jack caught his hand and held it, soothing the being and getting him to calm down once more before asking about it.

“Their tech there is really advanced; they tracked me almost everywhere I went and kept me on a leash. They skewed my sense of direction, like the GPS signals, so I don’t even know where they’re located either. Most of the time I needed their permission to do something and if they found out I didn’t, they would… do those things that caused pain… but they’re familiar with my coding now; if I went back and they found me, they would recognize it was me and do those things to me again. I don’t know if I’d ever be able to escape again.”

“Even if you stayed in the computers and didn’t make a physical form?”

“I never really had a physical form before I met you in the first place.” Anti sighed. “I woke up in… some type of form in that room I told you about but… once my coding was added to the computer, I didn’t really leave. I wasn’t created with normal knowledge of this world, there was very little I really knew. I could understand English, but I had trouble translating code to respond back in that language. Most of the time they asked for code related jobs, so there wasn’t too much that was hard for me to understand, but when it came to things that were more human… I had to search online to try to figure out what it meant. You saw how I was when we first met; my English wasn’t the greatest and I was unfamiliar with a lot of things you had here. This place is more of a _home_ ; where I lived at first was practically a lab. It’s like I really was just a computer that didn’t know what humans were…”

Jack cupped the being’s cheeks and leaned in for a soft kiss, not adding much force to it, but it was sweet and heart-warming. Anti hummed into the kiss with a smile, placing one of his hands over the human’s as they shared quiet touches.

“The places we’ve been hacking into lately, although they are all part of this… Maker system where I was created, they don’t have as high of security as the main facility.” Anti murmured, continuing with his thoughts as he leaned his forehead back down on Jack’s shoulder. “I should be able to continue helping you without any problems but… once we getting closer to the main buildings, I’m not so sure how easy it would be for me to get into the systems without being found out.”

“That’s alright.” Jack said softly, rubbing the being’s back. “You’ve already helped me a lot.”

“I… I don’t want to go back.” Anti said barely above a whisper. “I don’t want to go back there… I don’t want to be with those people anymore.”

“It’s okay, you’re safe here.” Jack hummed softly. “And you may still be figuring out who you are and what you can do still, but I’m certain you are stronger than any of those Maker goons.”

Anti smiled lightly as he moved to press a kiss along Jack’s neck, purring softly which caused the brunet to chuckle. 

“It’s okay.” Jack repeated, smiling more as the being pushed the two of them to lay down against the couch.

Anti placed quick kisses along the brunet’s neck, adding one on his lips before snuggling into his chest.

“Home… this is home…” Anti murmured, dozing off on the brunet’s chest so he wouldn’t have to think about his past. “I like having a home.”

 

…

 

“They’re callin’ him Maker Leader, you know, that guy on the monitor on our last mission that the workers there called ‘sir’.” Felix informed as the three agents sat together at a table in the dining hall as usual. “They’re thinking he’s the boss of this operation and ‘Primary’ was their word for the main headquarters, so they’re calling him the leader, or Mil for short.”

“Mil?” Mark hummed.

“Maker Leader, ML, sounds like Mil.”

“Ah.”

 _”I’m pretty sure he’s the leader.”_ Anti confirmed through a text on Jack’s phone.

“And, of course, we were so lucky to have no one actually say his name, and the pictures we have of him are blurred at best from being in a dark room with him being pixely from being on a monitor in the first place, we can’t try to match his face with anything or search for him by name!” Felix said, obvious that his use of “lucky” was sarcastic.

“What’s Eclipse planning for us to do?” Jack asked, seeing as Felix knew more about the operations going on at Eclipse.

“They’re sending another team back to that facility where we saw Mil so there’s new faces instead of sending us again.” Felix started. “Then they’re searching for other places that might be connected with Mil. It’s frustrating, really, to know that there is something going on but we still can’t figure out what it is. There’s not much we _can_ do until we know what’s going on.”

“Well… there’s some type of experimentation, right?” Mark shrugged.

“Yeah, but what is it?” Felix sighed. “Are they experimenting on the relatives of dinosaurs to try to make their own? Are they trying to make flying lizards? Are they experimenting on food and trying to make an overgrown hamburger?”

“I thought the world would’ve realized by now how terrible of an idea it is to recreate dinosaurs, there’s like six movies about that with lots of death.” Mark huffed.

“Stupid people do stupid things.”

“Or power hungry people whose egos are too big for them, thinking they can control things that are out of their hands.” Jack added.

“That’s probably who we’re dealing with.” Felix frowned. “If they were stupid people, we could’ve at least outsmarted them.”

“Yeah, that’s what stupid means, not smart.” Mark teased.

“You know what I meant.” Felix grumbled, swatting at Mark’s shoulder and rolling his eyes.

“So what are we supposed to do?” Jack hummed. “Just sit here and wait for the next mission while they’re off doing whatever it is they’re doing? What if it’s something serious? Something that could hurt people while we’re here doing nothing?”

“What would we do?” Felix said. “Without any information or clues as to where Mil could be or what they’re doing, there’s not much we can do. We can’t just blindly run around above ground going door to door to random buildings.”

Jack let out a frustrated sigh, not liking the situation, but knowing Felix was right.

“I’ll go back and look through all the Maker files.” Felix tried to offer. “I see if I can find a lead or some place we can go to for another mission, but otherwise, we’ll just have to wait for more information from the other teams who are out right now.”

The three of them changed the subject afterwards, talking about lighter topics to try to brighten the mood a little, but they all went back to their rooms before long.

That night, Jack was switching to his pajamas as Anti eyed the computer in the room, frowning slightly. Jack finished slipping on a shirt and turned to see the being, noticing the frown and walking over to wrap his arms around the being’s torso.

“You okay?” The brunet hummed softly.

“Yeah, I was just thinking… that guy… Mil, I know him, but my memories are hazy. However, since I was able to recover a little bit when I saw his face, I was thinking I might be able to recover some of my other memories and help with Project Maker.”

“Oh.” Jack said in surprise, turning Anti around in his arms to see his face. “You think you can do that?”

“Well, my memories weren’t deleted, they were just… encrypted… or locked… or something like that, so if I searched through my coding, I should be able to find them.”

“And then you could give us information on Mil and his entire operation!”

“I could try… they messed with my coding and databases a lot, so even if I _do_ remember something, I don’t know how useful it would be.”

“But you’re trying… for me.” Jack smiled. “Thank you.”

Anti smiled back, kissing the brunet gently on the lips before nuzzling into the side of his neck to purr against him.

“I won’t be able to sleep with you in this form, though.” Anti said sadly. “I’d have to be in my other form when looking through my coding like I plan to. I’ll be resting in your computer instead.”

Jack hummed sadly, turning his head slightly to kiss the being’s cheek and started swaying the two of them slowly back and forth where they stood.

“I can already tell I’ll miss you.” The brunet murmured.

“Don’t say that.” The being responded. “You’ll make me want to stay in this form.”

“I’m just sayin’.”

“How about this, I’ll stay with you until you go to sleep.”

“I’ll still miss you.”

Anti huffed and brought his head up to knock their foreheads together.

“Go to sleep already.”

“I’m tempted to stay up.”

“Then we won’t get any farther with recovering my memories.”

“I don’t like having to choose between the two of them.”

“Just go to sleep.” Anti said once more, leading the two of them over to the bed and laying them both underneath the covers.

The being kept his purring, soothing the human with the familiar rumble of it as he drifted off to sleep.

“Be here when I wake up?” Jack mumbled quietly, eyes closed and on the brink of sleeping.

“If I don’t lose track of time.” Anti hummed. “I’ll try.”

With that, the human smiled sleepily before he dozed off for real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your kudos are making me actually squeak; thank you so much! I actually stopped and put a hand on my face in surprise when I saw the new kudos <3 
> 
> I love reading your comments, and please please please do comment any questions you have; I wanted to explain Anti more in this chapter, but obviously I didn't think of everything, so please do comment anything you think of so I can smooth out this chapter.  
> You may also comment about anything else you wanna say too :3
> 
> Incase you want to poke me to make sure I'm still alive or chat with the group:  
> [TheBestBoos - Discord Server](https://discord.gg/Dvz7AxB)  
> https://discord.gg/Dvz7AxB


	8. Appear to Be

Jack woke up, groggily moving his hand over to feel the other side of the bed and found that Anti hadn’t returned. He wasn’t upset, though, and slowly got up and stretched before walking over to the computer. He sat down and looked at the monitor, seeing the screen showing that same odd coding that the brunet had seen the first time he found Anti. He saw the numbers moving, flickering and changing as Anti was working, and the human let out a quiet sigh. He had a subtle thought and gently leaned his head forward to press his forehead against the monitor. He hoped Anti was doing okay, whatever he was doing.

He then heard a soft beep and leaned back, seeing that a word document appeared in the corner of the screen.

“c:”

Jack smiled at the message, leaning back in the chair to watch the screen better as he saw the changing numbers begin to slow down. He pushed his chair back when the coding disappeared from the monitor, word document closing as well, and Anti’s coding moved out of the computer to stand in front of the other. The being’s form settled down, coding changing back to reveal Anti’s human form as he smiled at Jack and carefully sat on the human’s lap, legs to the side and arms around the human’s shoulders.

“Good morning.” Anti murmured, laying his head against his arm and Jack’s shoulder.

“Mornin’.” Jack smiled back, swaying a little in the chair, moving Anti along with him. “How’d your search go?”

“Frustrating.” Anti sighed. “The way I was created makes it difficult to recover memories.”

“404 error not found?” Jack quirked an eyebrow.

“Ha ha.” Anti said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. “But… that’s basically what it is.” He admitted a little quieter.

Jack laughed, patting Anti’s side to show it was all in good fun before he picked up the being and carried him over to the other room towards the kitchen.

“Seriously, though, have you ever had that time where you wanted to remember something and you’re like ‘come on, just remember the _thing_ , you know, that thing at that place with those people doing stuff’; you know it’s there but your mind just can’t get a clear image of it.”

“Every human ever has had that.” Jack smiled, setting the being down on the table.

“Well I _shouldn’t_ have that.” Anti frowned. “I’m not a human, Jack; I know I’ve reminded you of this fact multiple times.”

“You’re not invincible either.” The brunet said softly. “No one in this world is perfect; it’s _okay_ to need help; you don’t have to be able to do everything without flaws.” He added as he placed a hand gently on Anti’s thigh, leaning his head down to rest against the being’s forehead. “You don’t have to do everything perfectly as some way to make me happy like you owe it to me or anything… besides, if you did, then how would I ever be able to catch up?”

He felt as Anti tensed a little in surprise before the being brought his hands up to the brunet’s cheeks and frowned.

“No, Jack, you’re wonderful, you don’t have to do anything… you’re already all I could ask for.” The being murmured, hands moving up to touch the sides of brunet hair.

“And the same goes for you.” Jack smiled lightly. “You’re my angel, so please don’t push yourself too hard.”

Anti tilted his head up to press their lips together, a soft touch that was gentle and sweet, slow but comfortable. Jack sighed lightly, bringing his other hand up to cup the being’s cheek and rub his thumb softly against the skin.

“We’re okay.” The brunet hummed quietly as he saw the being get confused with his emotions again, eyes threatening to show tears. “We’re okay, everything’s going to be okay, you have nothing to worry about.”

The being huffed a small smile, looking up at the brunet with teary eyes before closing them once more and brushed their noses together in a soft nuzzle. It was sweet and the human felt his heart flutter at the motion. He wished today would be an easy day, just wanting to stay with Anti and rest now, placing soft kisses against the being’s cheek and across his face in a reassuring manner.

The silence didn’t last for long. Jack’s phone started ringing, signaling that someone was calling him, and the brunet knit his eyebrows together as he leaned back from Anti and looked over to the bedroom where his phone was laying on the table there.

“That’s odd…” Jack murmured. “Missions are always sent in texts and the other agents here text too. They would only call if it was something important…”

“The caller is under the contact name ‘Blue’.” Anti informed.

So Felix was calling him.

The being ushered him to go over there and Jack quickly walked into the bedroom to pick up his phone, answering the call with a confused frown.

“What’s going on?” Jack said as he heard the call connect.

“We got a new mission and we gotta go as soon as possible dude.”

The brunet looked back at Anti who was still standing in the other room, seeing the being nod to signal that he was listening in on the call.

“What is it?” Jack questioned, frowning more at the tone of urgency in the other’s voice.

“Start getting ready to go while I tell you.”

Jack huffed and grabbed his ear pieces, putting them in and connecting them to his phone so he could still talk with Felix while moving around the room. He walked over to the closet and started looking through clothes and some of the accessories he wore to missions there as Felix continued explaining.

“So you know how we figured Mil and his team are doing experimentations of some type? Well last night another team returned with a schedule and this morning it was finally decoded. There’s a lab that has a bunch of hired scientists and interns and things of the sorts; you and Mark are going in as part of that group to scope the place out and all but what we’re going for is to get into the main lab. The schedule showed that today they are going to pick certain people to move over to the main lab, wherever that is, so we need to go now if we want to make it.”

“Wait, so where we are going is not the main lab?”

“No, it’s like a practice lab of sorts, kind of like a place where they get a bunch of workers and test them out, and when they find who they like, they send them over to the real place.”

“So we’re going to pretend to be some of the workers and add ourselves to the list of people they choose to go to the main lab.” Jack wanted to confirm, seeing as this was a serious mission.

“Yes, and not only will we be able to find out the location of the main lab, but you two will have a good cover as well since you’ll be on the list. You’ll have a valid reason to be there.”

“Okay, got it.”

“This is still a serious mission, even though it isn’t the main building; it’s still seems like a big part of their operation. We’re going to the place where Mil finds his workers. Our main objective is to find the location of the main lab and add ourselves so we have cover, but we’re hoping to find out more information of what type of experimentation it is that they do and where they find the workers in the first place.”

“Understood.” Jack nodded on instinct, although Felix couldn’t see anyway, and finished getting dressed with all of his tech in place before walking back over to the living area of his room where Anti stood.

“I’m waiting at the car, Mark should be here shortly, and we’ll discuss it more on the drive over there. There’s some formal clothing and stuff you’ll have to put on to fit in too.”

“You’re coming with us?” The brunet questioned, used to Felix staying at the base or some other location behind the scenes.

“Yep, that’s why we’re taking my car that has all my tech in it. We don’t know much about this lab and who might be there so we are taking no risks; if you guys get into trouble, I’ll be there to get you out.”

Anti looked to Jack with a small frown, worry growing on his face as this mission started to paint a more and more dangerous case as Felix continued to explain it. The brunet noticed and walked up to him quietly, placing a silent kiss against him as a hand ran through the beings hair in a soothing way. They stayed close, only a few inches apart, as the call continued.

“Alright, I can see Mark on his way over here, you’re the last one.”

“Is there going to be a stop for food?” Jack asked, knowing it was poor planning to do a job, especially one as serious as this, on an empty stomach.

“No, you’ll have to grab something now and eat it in the car.”

“Okay.” Jack hummed. “Though you’re the one who gets mad at me for eating granola bars like this.” He added with a small smile.

“And now I will stuff said granola bars in your face.”

Jack let out a soft chuckle before the two of them ended the call, leaving the brunet alone with the being once more. He rested his head against the other as they stayed unmoving for a few moments, both calming their minds and preparing to leave.

“I want you to stay hidden for this.” Jack murmured, softly running his hand behind the being’s ear. “I remember what you said about your code being recognizable; I want you to be safe.”

“Jack…” Anti said weakly in protest, hands moving up to rest on the brunet’s shoulders. “This could be dangerous.”

“ _Could_ be dangerous, doesn’t mean it will be. Usually jobs like this are just time consuming, but there really isn’t anything dangerous going on rather than getting found out. Felix, Mark, and I have been in a lot of missions like this together; we’ll be fine. If something does happen, we’ll be able to get out of there.”

Anti moved his head back to give the other another worrying look, but a small smile formed on his lips as he sighed.

“Well now you have another person who’s looking out for you.” The being hummed.

“I know.” Jack smiled back, placing a light kiss on the being’s nose before reluctantly stepping away and over to the door, grabbing his tech glasses on his way. 

When he looked back at Anti, he saw the being smile a little wider before bowing and changing back into his coding form, disappearing from sight as he connected to Jack’s tech. The human then turned back to the door and quickly left, making his way over to the garage to meet with the others. Just as Felix had said, he and Mark were waiting by the blonde’s car, and when they noticed Jack on his way, they immediately opened the car doors to enter, leaving the brunet to sit in the back.

He opened the back door and was greeted by an unopened box full of granola bars along with another box of fruit snacks.

“Nice snacks you got here.” Jack chuckled as he slid them over to sit in its place, closing the door as Felix started the car and started to back out of the parking spot as soon as possible.

“I wasn’t lying when I said I would stuff them in your face if you didn’t eat either.” Felix huffed, only half paying attention to the conversation as he focused on getting out of the lot to get to the road.

“Don’t worry, those fruit snacks are the high quality ones.” Mark grinned, turning around to look back at Jack in the seat.

“Oh, goodie.” The brunet couldn’t help but smile back as he grabbed the box of fruit snacks and opened it, taking out a small bag and opening it as well. “Is there anyone else going to this place with us?” He added as he stuck a fruity snack in his mouth.

“We’re the professionals.” Felix responded, driving up the ramp that led to the outdoors. “You two are the agents going in; I’m going as the backup.”

“They aren’t sending any other teams?”

“We don’t know a lot about this group yet, and seeing as all the files we got from them are coded, it’s safe to assume they are a very cautious and very alert of their surroundings. Eclipse wanted to send as few people as possible and they picked us.”

“Ew.” Jack joked, but understood why they were chosen and would take this job just as seriously.

The rest of the ride there was mainly Mark and Jack talking back and forth about the mission, Felix being more focused on driving than listening in. He mentioned a few things here and there, but he was mainly driving over the speed limit to try to make it to their job before it was too late. It took them hours, only stopping for a bathroom break, but thankfully Mark was smart enough to pack a better lunch so they weren’t running on only fruity snacks and granola bars.

As they got closer to their destination, Felix parked far enough away from the building to stay out of the radar as they all started preparing to begin their assignment.

“Okay, got all the right clothes on?” Felix checked as Mark and Jack stood outside of the car wearing jackets with the buildings badge patched onto it along with fake nametags and accessories to better disguise them.

“Check.” They both said in unison.

“And you guys both got your tech?”

“Check.”

Felix then went to the back of the car, getting in from the back door as he had the back seats pulled down to make room for his set up; laptops and his other equipment already on and running.

“And your earpieces are still working?” The blonde added as he tested them by saying that line in the microphone.

“Check.” The other two said once again.

“Could you guys say more than one word?” Felix said with raised eyebrows.

“Sorry, just a little pre-mission fun.” Mark grinned.

“Fun before our impending doom?” Jack added, chuckling a little as well.

“We’ve never failed a mission before, don’t want to start now, do we?” Felix said with a determined grin. “You guys have the glasses with the tiny cameras in them; so make sure you look at cool stuff.”

“Alright, let’s get going.” Mark nodded, gesturing for Jack to follow as they started their walk to the lab.

 _”You guys were joking, right?”_ Anti asked the brunet, watching through the glasses as well as he spoke through to the earpiece.

Jack held back a laugh, covering his mouth as Mark turned to give him an odd look.

“You alright?” Mark asked.

“Yes.” Jack nodded, answering both Mark and Anti’s question. “We have nothing to worry about.”

“’Cause we’re just too good at our job.” Mark agreed. “We’ll be in and out in no time; we just have to get our names onto the list to go to the main lab and find the address and we’re golden.”

“Just ignore all that other stuff.” Felix huffed through the earpieces, clearly joking as well.

“If we find a room that has a dinosaur in it, it’s not our problem.” Mark added.

“Unless it eats you, then it’s your problem.” Jack smirked.

“Ow.” Mark puffed out a laugh. “That sounds painful.”

“C’mon guys, let’s get focused.”

The two agents approached the building, walking up to the front doors and taking in the cold exterior of the building, looking clean in an almost intimidating way. They looked at each other, smiling softly and giving one another a small nod before straightening up and walking inside, all traces of worry gone and replaced with a sense of purpose and confidence.

As soon as they walked inside, they found a few people already rushing back and forth between rooms, not many closed walls to hide much in the entryway. The two agents were then greeted by a man who was previously at the counter in the back of the room, looking busy himself as he looked up at the two agents.

“You two part of the chance group?” He asked, looking down at his phone before looking up at the two of them once more.

“Yep.” Mark said with a bright smile.

“Well the two of you are very late.” The man rolled his eyes. “I doubt you even have a sliver of a chance to get chosen now.”

“Well, it’s better to try but get nothing than to not try at all.” Mark chuckled.

“Sure.” The man huffed, clearly not impressed, then started leading the way to a back room, gesturing the others to follow. “Not much time left now; a guy from Primary is already here and he already looked over most of the people. Wouldn’t surprise me if he already left.”

“Ooo, do we get to know who it is?” Mark questioned, subtly working to get as much information as he could.

“I don’t know his name; you two are the guys who should know him, I just work at this building to keep everything organized. He’s some blonde guy, strawberry blonde or something maybe, I don’t know.”

“Alright, so it’s not Mil.” Felix hummed through the earpieces.

They passed a few rooms, people working in each one looking just as busy as the front of the building. There were monitors with what looked to be tabs full of information cluttering all of them along with notes across tables and counters. Half of them were all glancing at their phones as well, some hastily typing, others scrolling, more reading.

“Quite hectic today, huh?” Mark prompted, glancing at more rooms full of more hurried behavior.

The guide looked back at them with an eyebrow quirked and scoffed.

“Uh… a guy from Primary is here?” He reminded. “Yes, it is hectic.”

“Ok, now we know Primary is a big deal.” Felix noted.

They approached a room farther into the building and the guide opened the door to let the others in. This room was a lot larger, full of a lot of empty space but also had more counters full of more paperwork and monitors with just as many tabs. There were others in there as well wearing similar outfits to what the two agents had. The room also had a walkway on the second story which had no walls making it available for them to see anyone who was up there. As Mark and Jack walked into the room, looking around to take everything in, the other workers there barely gave them a glance before going back to what they were doing, scribbling down notes, typing things into computers, and reviewing information.

“You know the drill.” The guide huffed before turning around and leaving the room.

The two agents stood and watched as the guide exited before getting to work, making themselves look busy while trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

“Think you guys can leave the room?” Felix asked, only getting information from the agents, not being able to hack too far into the building itself without raising suspicion or getting caught himself.

The agents took another look around, watching a few of the workers and glancing at screens before both humming lowly. Jack wrote a message on his phone, lifting it up to his glasses so Felix would be able to see it, writing that they probably couldn’t leave since this is the room where the group they are in is working at and leaving would be odd, especially since a guy from Primary is here and he seems important enough for the workers to want to _stay_ in the room and work.

“Well what is the work anyway?” Felix frowned. “Damn, we really don’t have enough information for this. Playing it safe is good and all, but if we don’t do anything we’re going to get no information and get nowhere.”

Mark wrote another message, showing it to the others as well that explained how they could stay in the room until the pressure of the guy from Primary died down and they could scout the building from there.

“But if the guy leaves, we might miss a good chance to get some valuable information.” Felix countered.

 _”I can get into the computers from here…”_ Anti reminded, causing Jack to frown.

The brunet shook his head no softly, not wanting the others to notice, but enough that Anti understood. Jack had already said he wanted the being to stay safe for the mission and even Anti said he didn’t want to get caught in these systems.

Jack raised a hand to gently brush the side of his glasses, resting his fingers there for a moment before turning back to a monitor he had in front of him to continue looking through files. It wasn’t much, but Anti was able to understand what Jack was trying to do and hummed softly in response.

“Just say you have to go to the bathroom.” Felix huffed. “It’s an excuse that works in any situation.”

Mark and Jack then both showed a message asking where the bathroom was with a small smile.

“Well, figure it out!” Felix said in a tone like it was obvious, making Mark stifle a laugh and Jack smirk.

Mark turned to Jack, making a small gesture with his hands that signaled he was going to start talking with the others as Jack stayed put at a computer. The brunet listened in when he could, hearing the raven-haired man make small talk and try to joke with the others to get them to loosen up, but the others all seemed to be too worried with their own work to want to talk back. When he mentioned Primary, the others huffed and told him that he needed to mind his own work. It seemed the others were all working on individual projects to try to impress the guy from Primary. One man said the Primary guy had already checked this group, though, and that there wouldn’t be any hope in trying to find the guy now.

Sometimes Felix would hop in and say something about the coding of the building or mentioned whatever details he found. He couldn’t mess with the system too much, their defense systems were delicate enough to detect if there was foreign movement, but that didn’t stop him from sneaking into what systems he could and view the information.

Everyone in the room looked up when they heard the soft slide of an automatic door open as three men walked into the room on the second story walkway above. Two men wore black suits, both wearing a cold stern face, on either side of the third man who stood in the middle. The third man wore a light grey suit, looking a lot softer compared to the others in terms of demeanor, and as he walked over to the side of the walkway and looked over at the workers below, the workers straightened up and the mood became tense.

“Is that the guy? The Primary guy?” Felix questioned.

The man in grey had the strawberry blonde hair, and with the way the others reacted with his presence and the two bodyguards he seemed to have, the agents guessed as much. Mark had whispered to a worker to the side, asking that same question, and they confirmed that yes, that blonde man in grey was the guy from Primary. The man eyed the group, pausing when he noticed Jack and Mark, but made no effort to do anything else as he moved away from the edge and continued walking on his way, exiting through the doors on the other side.

“Ok guys, time to make your move.” Felix ordered.

“Bathroom break.” Mark huffed.

Jack left first, eyeing the second story path above and guessing where it led before walking out the adjacent door on the first floor, turning right and following the path there.

“Do you have a map of this place?” Jack asked in a hushed voice, not seeing anyone around who could hear him.

“Working on it.” He heard Felix answer.

However, a small map of the building appeared on his glasses only a few moments later with a comment from Anti, saying he could access things like this without having his presence known. Mark gave him a few more minutes before walking out the door as well, not getting so much as a glance from the others as he left. Jack saw his positioning on the map, seeing he was a few rooms behind him, and the two worked on scoping the place out to find the Primary guy. None of the other workers they passed seem to pay them any mind, all being enveloped in their own mind with their own work, and assumed the agents were heading off to do their own work as well.

“Haven’t seen any signs of that guy yet; he’s probably on the second floor still.” Felix hummed, watching from both Jack’s and Mark’s view and updating the others, seeing as the two agents had split up to cover more ground.

“Alright, heading to the stairs on the east.” Jack confirmed, finding the door that lead to the staircase and walking up quickly.

Once the brunet opened the door to the second floor, he found that there were significantly less rooms as it was more of an open concept area. There were a few glass doors, revealing monitors and more paperwork on counters, but it also meant less places to hide. Someone noticed Jack and frowned, quickly walking over to him passed one of the glass doors and stopped in front of him with a scowl.

“What are you doing here?” The man growled, grabbing the name tag from the brunet’s coat and glaring at it before shoving it back. “You don’t have clearance to be here, you’re supposed to be on the first floor with the other preview groups.”

“Sorry, I was looking for someone who’s on the second floor.” Jack replied, fixing his name tag back on properly.

The man scoffed, looking at Jack like he was insane before growling again and grabbing him by the upper arm, leading him back towards the stairs. Jack was about to protest and was thinking of a way to stay before they were both stopped from a voice behind them.

“Hold on for a second.”

They turned around and saw the strawberry blonde man in grey accompanied by his two guards walk up to them.

“My apologies, sir, I was just getting this trespasser to leave. He is one of the men from the first floor.”

“I am aware.” The blonde man nodded. “I asked for him to come up here.”

The man holding Jack immediately let go, looking scared and took a step back with wide eyes.

“Oh, my apologies again, sir. I was unaware, please forgive me.”

The blonde man waved him off with a smile then gestured for Jack to follow as they both started walking towards a room in the back. The brunet listened in as Felix was updating Mark on his situation. He was led into another glass room, this one looking more like an office rather than a lab as the two guards waited by the door, leaving Jack and the blonde man to stand in the open space.

Once the man turned around, Jack finally got a good look at his face. He had soft blue eyes and a calm aura and something clicked with the brunet. He was reminded of the time when he was sitting in the living room with Anti; the being was describing when he first met Jack.

 _You didn’t look like… like you wanted to hurt someone… you didn’t have that dark expression or that aura that everyone else had._ The being had said, and Jack finally saw it for himself. This man in grey, whoever he was, looked nothing like the others; he didn’t have that cold expression or that dark aura or that strict posture. If anything… he looked… _sad_.

“I didn’t see you in this morning’s assessment.” The blonde started but said with a gentle smile.

“I wasn’t here this morning.” Jack replied, trying to get a sense for this man to see who he was.

The brunet could tell there was something different. Maybe this man was like him in a way, and though neither of them could outright ask the other about it, there was still a chance to hint at it. Jack is looking for clues, and if he was right in his sense that the blonde wasn’t threatening, then he would be looking for clues from Jack as well.

“Why are you here?” The blonde asked.

“Just doing my job.”

“We both know I didn’t ask you to see me here, so what brings you to the second floor?” The man added.

“Sometimes you just need to do what you think is right.”

The man’s smile grew ever so slightly, still small and Jack could still see the dull hints of sadness in his eyes, but there was something else in them as well, something Jack couldn’t name.

“Do you think you’re doing the right thing, then?” The man continued, raising an eyebrow carefully.

“I can’t say for sure, but sometimes you have to take a chance, even when there isn’t anything else going for you.”

“But what if you think you’re doing the right thing only to find out you aided in doing something wrong.”

“The world isn’t always kind, if I may say so, but that doesn’t make me any less of a person than I am. Mistakes are made, yes, but we live and we learn and we change those wrongs into rights.”

“Even if you appear to be an enemy in the eyes of others?”

“Well, not everyone is what they appear to be. I like to think that as long as I do what I believe in, people will understand.”

The man paused, eyeing Jack, looking him over before relaxing his shoulders and folding his hands in front of himself.

“I see.” The man nodded.

It seemed as though he was about to say something else before his head turned to the side to watch as Mark was being brought over by the same guide who the two agents met at the counter when they first entered the building. The guide and Mark entered the room they were in, glass doors swinging out as they walked in as the guide huffed.

“I found this guy walking around upstairs.” The guide frowned. “And I see you have his partner.”

“Partner?” The blonde quirked an eyebrow.

“Yeah, these two walked in together, _very late_ I might add.”

“Better late than never.” Mark shrugged, earning a small smile from the blonde.

“Would you like me to lead them out of here, sir?” The guide suggested, apparently not liking Mark or Jack.

“No, that won’t be necessary.” The blonde said carefully. “I’d prefer quite the opposite. Please give these two the files for Primary, I would like to see them there.”

The guide gasped and stared with wide eyes, looking between the two agents in surprise before tilting his head to the side.

“These two? But they were late!”

“Didn’t you hear what he said, though? Better late than never. In fact, most people, if they are late, choose the easy way out and just don’t show at all, not wanting to go through the embarrassment or punishment of being late, yet these two both decided to show even though they knew there would be people like you who would hound them about it.”

Mark held back a small smirk, though Felix laugh aloud through the earpieces as the guide frowned.

“I was sent over here to choose who I thought would make good additions for Primary and I choose these two.”

The guide pursed his lips, glancing between the two agents again before letting out a defeated sigh and straightened up.

“Understood, I’ll get the files prepared and add their names to the list.” The guide nodded before turning around to leave, opening the glass doors once more, leaving the two agents alone with the blonde.

“I must be on my way, I’ve stayed here far longer than I intended.” The blonde started, looking at the two agents with a smile before it faded into something more solemn. “I hope you meant what you said before; not everyone is what they appear to be. You may find that there is someone more on your side than you think, but there are also those who are hiding their true intentions under the façade of a good face.”

“I think I’ll know who I can trust when I see them.” Jack responded, giving the man a small nod as Mark smiled and nodded as well.

“Well it was a pleasure to meet you, Mister…” Mark started, holding his hand out to shake the blonde’s hand.

“Mr. Torkar.” The blonde said, shaking Mark’s hand. “I hope that I’ll be seeing the two of you at Primary.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone who is like "what the heck why did they get invited to Primary when the guy just met them???" I promise I have an explanation; I actually wrote out an outline for the rest of this story and I'm guessing it'll be about 14 chapters (though it's not set in stone). This chapter is already 5625 words, the explanation will be later and it'll make sense (I think it's a neat idea honestly).


	9. So It's True

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was working on pics for this (more detail in bottom notes) and I wasn't going to update until I finished them but then someone nice mentioned my story and I could feel my face go red and I couldn't English properly and I just kind of fell over from embarrassment in my room so I got the courage to write the next chapter as soon as possible. It's 6333 words too! I hope you all enjoy it :3
> 
> And the bottom notes are a bit long so I'll say it here; feel free to comment about anything and you may absolutely ask questions if something confuses you :3

“Okay, so who was that guy?” Felix asked, arms stretched out on either side of him as he, Mark, and Jack were standing in one of the office rooms of Eclipse after returning from their mission.

“Mr. Torkar?” Mark shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Yes, we know his name, but who is he? He took one look at the two of you and suddenly you two got into Primary. Now, believe me, I’m happy that we had a successful mission and nothing bad happened, but seriously, it can’t be that easy, right?”

Mark only shrugged again with a frown.

Jack had messaged Anti while they were all on their way back to the base but the being said he didn’t recognize the blonde. The being mentioned that he didn’t recognize the building that much either, stating that everything seemed new to him and he wasn’t able to get much without going into the systems. The human reassured him that it was alright and the being didn’t need to know everything, but there was still that uncomfortable nervousness from the unknown.

“Well, the information we got about Primary says that we need to be there in a few days so I guess we can find out then.” Mark tried to offer.

The files didn’t say much about the building, only giving its location, some rules and procedures, and what was expected of the two agents who would be going over there. It still didn’t give them any clues about what was going on there or how to decode the information they have.

“Hope you two are ready for this.” Felix huffed, not knowing what else to say.

 

…

 

“Welcome to Primary.” A female voice rang out as Jack and Mark walked through the front doors of the large building, everything painted white and surrounded by blue hologram screens.

The two men looked forward to see a woman standing in front of them with short purple hair and a soft smile, silver eyes looking at them politely. She wore a light purple flower tucked behind an ear and a strapless white dress that faded to purple halfway down, leading to surprisingly bare feet. She was noticeably shorter than the two agents to the point where they wondered how old she was since she appeared to look so young.

“I am Iris Mallow, I will be your guide for the day.” The woman continued with a smile. “If you would please follow me.”

The woman turned around, dress flowing behind her as she started walking back towards a door in the room. The agents said nothing as they followed, finding that the building was eerily quiet itself. Iris explained a few things as they walked past other rooms and hallways, most of them having tinted windows and closed doors, preventing anyone from seeing what was going on in there.

“It is very important that you stay within your authorized areas.” Iris added as they turned a corner to another hallway. “You are expected to follow the rules given to you; any inappropriate actions will be dealt with accordingly.”

“No warnings?” Mark tried to joke, hoping to lighten the mood a little.

“No.” Iris answered straightforward with a smile, making Mark’s smile fade to an awkward frown.

The three of them approached another closed off room, though the doors slid open when Iris walked up to it, gesturing for the others to follow. It didn’t have anyone else inside and was just as white as the rest of the building with its own set of monitors and hologram screens.

“Here is where you will be staying at for the time being. There should already be files loaded on the computers for you to look at. However, you cannot be fully accepted into the program until you get the approval from the boss. He is looking forward to meeting with you.” The woman said with that same smile.

“Ah… I see.” Mark tried to reply, still uncomfortable from the atmosphere of the building.

“As long as you do your work properly and do not cause any problems, then you have nothing to worry about.”

“Understood.” Mark nodded, glancing to Jack who was frowning slightly as well.

“If you have no further questions, then I will take my leave.” The woman tilted her head in farewell as she walked past them and back out the door, leaving the two agents alone in the room.

“Okay, I’m not in the room with you so I can’t say for sure, but something seemed off about her.” Felix commented through the ear pieces.

“Oh yeah, definitely.” Mark huffed. “She doesn’t look like the type of person who would work here and she seemed very… stiff? Like a trained butler or something, I don’t know.”

“Well Primary seems to have a high reputation; I bet everyone acts like that here.” Felix added. “It doesn’t seem like anyone wants to risk acting out a place and getting in trouble.”

_”She had a signal.”_

Jack frowned at Anti’s comment, looking back to the doors where the woman had left through, and prompted Anti to continue, though he already knew what that meant.

_“Signals come from electronics, anything that can connect to an online system or something like a device. Humans don’t have signals.”_

“Holograms need to have a light source in order to be projected properly right?” Jack asked aloud, watching as Mark turned to him in surprise before he realized what Jack was suggesting.

“That’s true; she could have been a hologram or something like that.” The raven-haired man then looked up at the ceiling and frowned. “I’ve seen moving holograms that act like humans, but they also had the projector the moved around on a rail on the ceiling. There’s nothing like that here.”

“Maybe that’s part of what they’re working on?” Felix suggested. “Maybe it’s kind of like a robotics lab. Either way, be careful.”

“We always are, Fe.” Mark smiled.

The two of them stayed in that room for a while, looking through the files that Iris had mentioned but found they were basically the same as the ones they found at the other buildings. They double checked them, trying to see if there was something they missed, but it seemed they weren’t going to get any new information from this.

“I’m a bit worried about the boss… that Mil guy…” Mark mumbled, leaning back in one of the chairs as he glanced at the screens before turning to Jack. “Mr. Torkar inviting us to Primary is confusing enough as it is, but we’re going to have to meet with the boss soon enough in order to get anywhere in this building and I have a feeling he isn’t going to be as willing as Mr. Torkar was. Especially because we don’t even know what we’re doing. We can pretend to be scientists and all, but when it comes down to being interviewed by the boss in a place as high up and sensitive as what this seems to be… I think there’s a good chance he’ll realize we aren’t who we say we are.”

“Then you’ll have to get the most out of today.” Felix added.

They didn’t know how long they would have until the boss came to see them; it might be today, it might be days from now, but they weren’t going to risk it. Jack stayed in the room while Mark found what other places they had authorization to visit and left. Felix would comment about what one of them was doing once in a while, but things were pretty static for a while.

Jack started tampering with the files on the computer, looking deeper into them and trying to find out where they had originated from to find the main files, but he wasn’t too keen on hacking into it. He didn’t know how high of a defense system this place had, and if it really was as restrictive and private as they thought it was, then the systems would notice that Jack was messing with it. He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Mark’s voice through the earpiece.

“Guys…” Mark said quietly. “They have a dog here…”

“A… dog?” Jack questioned. “Did I hear that right?”

“Yes, it’s a little golden retriever.” Mark answered, voice still hushed. “I was asking a bit about it and one of the scientist people said something about the next project they have scheduled.”

“Why is there a dog?” Felix added in.

“I don’t know but it’s… it’s kind of cute.”

“What?”

“It’s so adorable, she has such a fluffy coat and her cute little tail was wagging when I walked over there and-“

“Mark.” Felix cut him off. “Don’t get sidetracked okay? I don’t want something to happen because you were too focused on the dog.”

“But think; why would there be a dog here in the first place? I don’t think they have it here just to have company.”

“Remember what I said about being careful, though, okay?”

“I know, Fe.”

It was quiet for a bit longer, then Jack found a small difference in the coding of one of the files he was looking at. He narrowed his eyes, mind going through ideas of what to do, and let out a frustrated breath.

“I think I found something.” He announced, staring at the coding with a frown.

“Found what?” Felix acknowledged.

“It’s like a small blip in one of the files here. They missed hiding it so I might be able to use it to get past the restrictions we have on the computers here… but I can’t say for sure. If I trigger a warning, then we might be in trouble and have to get out of here.”

“I trust you.” Mark responded. “Like I said before, once we meet with the boss, I think our time here will be over with, so we might as well get what we can. See how much info you can get with that, and if it triggers a defense system, then we’ll just have to leave a little early.” 

“Alright.” Jack smiled slightly. “Here goes nothing.”

He was right about the blip, using it to open up a doorway in the system and ran a scan throughout it to see what was open. He found a whole new set of information and got to work. It was new, different, and he plugged in his USB as he started filtering through what first popped up. He wanted to be quick and he wanted to find the most important info first. He scanned the words, finding what had bits of repeat information and skipped them, rushing through the files and coding and started searching for key words. He ran a program he got off his USB to run in the background, hoping it would speed up the process as he checked the next screen.

His eye’s read the words “Maker” and he paused, going back to reread it and felt himself hold his breath.

“I found something with the Project Maker title.” He informed, opening the source and reading through it quickly.

He paused again when he found the numbers 4271, immediately recognizing it as the numbers that was on Anti’s original file. He blinked, not hearing anything from the coded being, and opened it up.

He felt himself read the words slowly, not understanding exactly what it was he was reading, and frowned more as the seconds went by. “Unexpected success”, “repeat results as soon as possible”, “unsuspecting”, “does not remember-“ he was cut off when the file closed itself and the screen changed to a darker shade. He looked in the corner and saw that someone was alerted of his activities in the system and traced his movements back here. He barely had a second to warn the others before his monitor was locked and an alarm started going off across the building.

“I’m getting system warnings on the monitors here.” Felix stated, still having access with the laptops he was using with his car. “Detected breach traced back to your room Jack.”

“Time to make our exit.” Jack huffed, getting up from the chair and rushing over to the door only to find it locked. “Fe, I’m trapped.”

“On it.”

The room’s lights shut off after a second and the door slide open an inch before powering down itself.

“Okay, you should be able to push it open.”

Jack fit his hands between the opening in the door, pushing against them and slowly getting it to open up as he slipped past it and entered the hallway.

“You guys need to get out of there now.” Felix said in a serious tone. “They sent out a message through the building labeling the two of you as the suspects and gave permission to execute the two of you on the spot.”

“Shit.” Mark muttered lowly, loud enough to be picked up through the earpieces. “Okay, I’m pretty far off to the west, I’ll probably be going out through a different door than you, Jack, so don’t wait up for me.”

“The main door is probably closed off and guarded by now.” Jack responded, turning to go the opposite direction from where they first came from and slipped his hand under his jacket to pull out one of his guns. “Fe, you have anything?”

“Most of the building is on shut down to try to keep the two of you in place; I can open the doors when you get there but I don’t know how long I’ll have before they trace the signal here.”

“I’m in one of the main hallways, I don’t think I’ll have problems with the doors as long as I don’t go into too many separate rooms.”

He went silent as he heard footsteps approaching and pressed his back against the wall. He checked how much tranquilizer ammunition he had on him, not wanting to switch to the gun with normal bullets unless it was his last resort, and waited for the footsteps to get closer. He saw the first man come into view as he kneeled down and aimed for the man’s throat as he pulled the trigger and watched as a dart his the guy’s skin. He did the same for the second and third man as well, luckily catching them off guard and hitting them before they could retaliate.

“Heading north.” Jack updated, stepping over the bodies now laying on the floor as he continued down the path.

He came across a few more workers, some who appeared to be scientists and ran the other direction, which lead Jack to believe that not all the people working here were trained to fight, but there were more who fired at him. One bullet grazed his jacket, ripping the fabric and causing the sleeve to fall to the side, but the others he managed to avoid as he ducked behind whatever objects were in the path. He flipped a metallic table on its side to use as a wall during one of the encounters, hearing the loud clang of bullets hitting metal as he peeked around the side and shot two more darts at the man firing at him. He could feel his heart racing, adrenaline pumping as he watched more workers fall to the ground unconscious. He was hyperaware of the rip against his arm, knowing it was dangerously close to hitting skin, but shook his head to focus as he turned another corner.

“I think there’s an exit closer to the right, Jack.” Felix said, switching between guiding the two agents.

The alarms were blaring overhead, causing the brunet’s ears to start ringing as he directed himself to the right, eyes squinting at the artificial lights of the building only serving to make the beginning of his headache worse. He groaned as he pushed another door open, struggling against the mechanisms trying to close them again as he slipped past.

“I see a window.” Mark informed, heavy breathing come through. “I’m gonna break it and head out there.”

The sound of a gun firing was heard through the earpiece along with shattering glass. A few moments later Mark updated them that he made it outside and he was going to run off in a different direction in case anyone was following to lead them away from Felix’s car.

Jack found a door that seemed larger than the others and he quickly pushed it open, hoping it would lead to an exit, but turned his head to see his back was turned to another man in the room holding a gun. The brunet quickly flung his arm to the side and pulled the trigger on the dart gun but only heard an empty click as he realized he didn’t refill the darts.

His eyes widened and he mentally prepared himself to hear the firing of the other’s gun and the burst of pain that it would cause, but at that same moment there was a loud electrical snap. The monitors in the room sparked for a second before they all burst with the sound of electronics frying. Another split second and then the lights shut off and there was a low buzz coming from what sounded like the entire building as systems powered down. Before Jack even had the time to realize what in the world was happening right now, everything going to quickly for him to process, he felt something grab another one of his gun’s hooked onto the inside of his jacket and push him to the side.

He saw a flash of something stand in front of him, eyes having trouble adjusting from artificial lights to darkness to now what appeared to be a green flickering form. He shut his eyes for a few seconds and opened them to reveal the form in from of him clearly now. Standing there was Anti, holding the gun and pointing it straight towards the man, but Anti looked almost inhuman. The normal appearance he had of Jack was almost gone and instead the being was a mixture of dark shades and coding along with green sparks surrounding him, reminding the brunet of when the being had lost control of his emotions before. The being had a heavy scowl, low growls echoing in the room as he stood between the two humans, and Jack could feel the fuzz of static in the air again.

It happened so quickly that Jack’s mind was still trying to catch up with everything, but his mind slowed to a stop when he heard the other man in the room speak.

“Ain…” The room was silent for a moment aside from the buzzing coming from the being. “Is that… really you?”

Jack narrowed his eyes, trying to make out who the other man, and held his breath when he realized. The man dropped the gun onto the floor, eyes wide as he stared at the two of them, hand that was previously holding the gun now shaking in midair. Anti was still growling, his gun still pointed straight towards the other, but the brunet quickly ran over to his side and put a hand on top of his.

“Anti, it’s okay, he already dropped his gun, he’s not going to hurt us.” Jack said in a hushed voice.

The being’s head turned sharply, staring into Jack’s eyes before glaring back at the other man.

“Mr. Torkar…” Jack started, putting a hand on Anti’s shoulder to try to calm the being down at the same time. “What…?” He wasn’t quite sure what he was supposed to be asking.

“You don’t… remember?” The blonde man frowned, face barely able to see in the darkened room, only faintly lit up from the green glow coming from Anti. “Uh… hold on… what was it… ah… 4271, that was your code.”

Anti tensed up at that, hand gripping the gun tighter as he scowled at the blonde.

“Wait, you know about him?” Jack frowned.

There was a lot the brunet suddenly wanted to ask him. Why did he invited the two agents to Primary in the first place? How did he know Anti? How was he involved with it? What was even going on in Primary? Questions jumbled his mind, but at the same time, the adrenaline of running was still coursing through his veins and he was still partly in the mindset of escaping as soon as possible. There may not be enough time to get the answers he wanted.

Jack urged Anti to calm down once more, moving his hand up to grab the gun in the being’s hand and gently moved it out of his grip. The being turned to look at the brunet, features softening, and he slowly let out a breath. His form calmed down as well, no longer sparking with energy and he shifted his appearance to resemble Jack’s once more. He still glared at the blonde, finger’s fidgeting in the hand that once held the weapon, but he wanted to trust Jack.

The room was now eerily quiet, no computers running, no lights buzzing, no sounds coming from the others. Jack’s eyes had slowly adjusted to the dark room and he was able to see the blonde man stare at the being’s new form in surprise while glancing between the two of them.

“So that’s where he’s been…” The blonde murmured before he quickly turned around to view the monitors behind him.

He typed something onto the keyboard, seeing nothing happen with the broken devices, then brought an arm in front of him as a blue hologram screen appeared from a device on his arm and he typed something into there instead.

“It looks like you powered down the entire facility. Not only that, but it’s on a serious lockdown and there’s a restriction of signals, so nothing can come in or out. The cameras are down too.” The blonde announced.

Jack then realized he hadn’t heard anything from Felix or Mark yet and understood now that the signal was disrupted. They were essentially alone in there; no one would know what they did or what happened.

“Mr. Torkar…” Jack started once more, taking a step forward and looking into the man’s eyes now glowing from the hologram. “How do you know Anti?”

The blonde looked up, eyes soft as he looked at the brunet and back at the being, making another sad smile.

“So that’s your name now? It’s… nice to know you’re okay…”

“Mr. Torkar?” The brunet frowned, looking back at the being and seeing that he didn’t understand either.

The blonde sighed, looking at the screen of the hologram once more before he took the device off of his arm and set it down on a table in the room to act as a light source.

“You cannot stay here for long; they will find a way to turn the power back on and they are probably gathering more men as we speak, but I will explain what I can.” The blonde murmured, watching as the three of them stood around the table to listen to the story.

“A long while ago, maybe about a year or more, I was hired to work here on a project they claimed to be a virtual reality design. They said they wanted to design a system that allowed people and virtual reality programs and systems to be more compatible, like how people now use the designs to play video games. It was a futuristic idea. I was impressed with the technology they have here and they already had fascinating progress on the project, so I agreed to work with them. Then they started bringing in others, people they said were test subjects for the virtual reality programs we were working on. I was given a young man, he reminds me a lot of you now that I think about it. He had that same soft expression you have.” The blonde said as he smiled softly at Jack.

“So I tested his skills and compatibility with the virtual reality systems. I checked to see how well he could operate the design and understand it. Sometimes we would mess around with other things, like other games or other programs to see how well he performed. He was outstanding; he picked up on everything quickly and his mind seemed to almost function like a computer itself. I started designing more and more complicated tests and designs and he passed them all with hardly any trouble. But that wasn’t all… he was nice. Sometimes when he would come in for testing, we would just talk about our days and whatever was on our mind. He was a kind-hearted man and he always seemed to talk about everything with such wonder. I would sometimes just sit in the room and listen to him; he became the one friend I had at this place. He was a good man, a person that everyone needs to know some time in their life. Things were going well, progress advanced, the designs got more detailed, and it looked like we were going to get results ahead of schedule. I would send in reports to the boss and it seemed he was just as impressed as I was. He then gave me instructions to run other procedures, some relating more to the mental and physical health of the subject, and I was a bit confused about it at first, but I figured the boss would know what he was doing, and everything seemed to come back positive and controlled. Then… then the boss came to see us in person…” Mr. Torkar paused and looked up at Anti, looking sad, and crossed his arms in front of himself with shoulders low.

“He wanted to run his own tests in person and had me design more as well. He said he was proud of my work and that I was the only one who managed to get such positive results; I guess it went to my head a little. Then the boss started having the two of us work in another room, kind of like a lab, and he started connecting my friend to strange machines and… I remember we made jokes about him being a cyborg… neither of us knew what was going on… and then…” The blonde shook his head, closing his eyes as he steadied his breathing.

“I don’t want to explain what happened after but… but it was inhumane and… and something that never should have ever existed. I… I was tricked into aiding this facility in preparing the perfect host for their experiment. They said it was a virtual reality program, but it was instead an experiment to combine human and virtual properties together. Imagine a computer intelligence that can do anything online; hack into anything, use coding for anything, act like the perfect system that can program itself to do anything, but also with human intelligence as well; a computer that understands human interactions and has its own emotions and can act like a human itself. A human doesn’t have the infinite intelligence of a computer, but a computer doesn’t have the intricate emotions and adaptability of a human… but together…” The blonde trailed off but let out a frustrated sigh as he composed himself once more and continued.

“I was taken away from my friend after that; they didn’t let me see him and they wouldn’t tell me anything that happened. I heard small bits about what happened once in a while, but I never got any concrete information about it. I asked to see him multiple times but they always said he wasn’t allowed to see anyone and he didn’t remember me anyway. They said his memories of his human life were destroyed in the process. I didn’t want to believe them, I thought they were saying that to try to dissuade me from trying to see him, but I suppose they were telling the truth there. I never forgave myself though…” He frowned and fidgeted with his fingers for a bit.

“I never forgave myself for what I did; I know it wasn’t completely my fault, I was tricked into this, but I still helped them destroy a human’s life for this… so I made up my mind. I knew they wouldn’t want to lose me; I’m the only person they have who can get close to repeating the experiment. Luckily the experiment at the time was the first one they did, it was almost an accident of sorts, and some of the data was lost in the process, so they weren’t able to start the next procedure until they reorganized. They wanted me to lead the testing and organize the information they received, and as much as I wanted to get away from this life, I knew I had to fix what I had done. So I stayed, I agreed to help them, but at the same time I use the information I get to try to see if there is a way to help the people who are unlucky to end up here. At first I thought maybe I could find a way to reverse it… but I cannot reverse a person’s death… but that doesn’t mean I can’t try to save as many people as I can. I am often sent to hire others to join Primary and join the project, and if I didn’t do it, then they would send someone else instead, so one of the ways I try to make up for what I have done is to find the people who look like myself, people who don’t want to cause harm. That’s why I chose you and your friend to come here; I could tell the two of you were not corrupt like some of the others here. I know it’s not much, but I’d rather have kind-hearted people work here than those who would try to further the experiment without consideration for human life.”

“So… this building works… on human experimentation?” Jack said softly, not wanting to believe it. “Is that what those files labeled ‘Maker’ is about?”

“Yes, Maker is what they call the projects relating to this experiment. Some are small, some barely have anything at all, but they all relate in some way. They are vague on purpose to trick others like they did to me, leaving out the information of human experimentation while still leaving the process and designs.”

“Has there been… more than one attempt?” Jack asked.

“Unfortunately I cannot prevent them from continuing with their work. I can find ways to slow it down and stall them, but I cannot do much else without them realizing what I’m doing. You met the woman at the front room, right? Her name is Iris. She was another person who was unlucky to end up here… lucky enough to survive but… she was considered a failure. She doesn’t have a proper human form; your hand would go through her if you tried to touch her, and she doesn’t have proper human emotions. I believe now they are testing to see how compatible animals are with it because it is getting harder to find people who are willing to come here. However… my friend is still the only one considered a success.”

“And your friend?” Jack murmured.

“My friend’s name was Ain… he was the first experiment and only success… given the number 4271…” The blonde looked up at Anti sadly, eyes glossy with unshed tears, but he didn’t let them fall. “I know you don’t remember me but… I’m happy to see that you’re okay… you were a nice person… you didn’t deserve to have your life changed like this… but you are still my friend. I know it’s not much, but you deserve to know what happened.”

Anti was silent, staring at the blonde with wide eyes, but Jack could see there was confusion in them. The silence didn’t last for long as a loud buzz was heard overhead, power returning to the building slowly. The blonde frowned and grabbed the device from the table, putting it back onto his wrist as lights turned on dimly in the room they were in.

“You can’t stay; they know you hacked into the building and now I told you about Maker. When I invited you here, I didn’t know who you were, but now that you have Ain… or Anti I guess I should say, on your side and, if I’m not mistaken, you’re trying to stop this facility from causing any more harm, I can tell I made the right decision. I didn’t have any hope of stopping this before; there’s not a lot I can do by myself, but with Anti here… we may have a chance of ending this once and for all.”

Jack nodded his head in agreement, glancing at the being who still seemed to be struggling with the new information.

“Mark and I are part of an organization trying to prevent things like this from happening.” Jack explained. “We’re going to do our best to make sure no one else is tricked into this experiment. Your boss won’t be able to get away with this.”

“Thank you…” Mr. Torkar said with a sigh, eyes looking down and figure standing loosely in what looked like a combination of exhaustion and sadness, but he was still able to smile and a small spark of hope returned to his eyes. “Here, before you go…” The blonde gestured for Jack to hand him his phone, typing something into it before handing it back and walking over to the door they first entered through. “You have to go now; the other door to your right will lead to an exit. I’ll stop anyone who comes in over here.”

Jack gave him his thanks, spending a moment to murmur something to Anti and get the being to return to his phone, then quickly made his escape. The rest of the path out of the building thankfully didn’t have any other people and the brunet was able to make it out easily from there. Once he opened the last door and made it to the outside, he heard his earpiece fuzz with static before Felix’s voice returned.

“Jack! Jack please respond!”

“Felix, I’m here, I made it out.” He responded, looking behind himself and not seeing anyone following, but playing it safe none the less and going the long way around to Felix’s car.

“Mark made it back, he’s fine. How are you?”

“Heading to the car. I don’t think anyone is following but I’m going to be careful anyway.”

“What happened in there? We lost connection to you and the monitors here couldn’t find a signal anywhere in the building, like something shut everything completely down.”

“Yeah, I was stuck for a bit, but I escaped when a bit of the power returned.”

“Okay, did you manage to get any information before everything went downhill?”

Jack contemplated whether or not he should tell them. Now he knew Anti was directly related to the Maker Project, hell, Anti basically _is_ the Maker Project. He didn’t know how well the others would react to seeing Anti for the first time, though, and even more so now since they might see Anti as a threat rather than an ally. He would have to tell them eventually. He knew he wouldn’t be able to do this by himself and the longer he tried to keep it a secret, the closer the others would get to finding it out by themselves. It would be better to explain it himself, it would hopefully make it easier for the others to trust the being, but it was still a difficult idea to think about.

Right now didn't feel right, though. They just learned about Anti's past, even if it was in the version of a quick story, and Jack just wanted to get home where he knew it was safe and hold the being in his arms. He had no idea what Anti's mind was thinking; he didn't know if the being was okay with it, having been so long since then, or if he was hurt at the idea of being a human and having his life abruptly ended in such a way. He didn't look like he was about to break down like before, though, and Jack trusted that he would be okay for the car ride back. He had to trust that it would be alright.

The brunet then took out his phone, looking through it to try to find what other blonde man had added and found a new contact. “Robin Torkar” it read, and a small smile formed on Jack’s lips. He quickly made it to Felix’s car after that, finding the other two agents waiting for him with the car already running, so he opened the door to the back seats and got in. They drove off quickly, not looking back, and the car rumbled quietly as they made their way down the road. Felix announced that they would be stopping at one of the guest houses Eclipse had for them, saying it was too late for them to make it all the way back to the base tonight. They didn’t talk much, wanting to relax after the stressful escape, and they played a soft melody on the radio to ease the tension.

Then there was a playful bark.

“Mark…” Felix said slowly, not taking his eyes off the road.

“Yes?” Mark answered innocently.

“Did you take the dog?”

Jack turned his head to the seat next to him, seeing Mark’s jacket resting there, but there was a lump underneath it that he hadn’t noticed before and it slowly moved out of the way to reveal the little golden retriever poking her head out.

“Yes.” Mark said, a hint of laughter under his breath.

“I can’t believe you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As soon as I saw this story hit 100 kudos I accidentally hit my leg and broke my face smiling and oh my gosh!
> 
> I’m so sorry I didn’t reply ;; I seriously love your comments, they really do make me feel better about writing (since my confidence likes to hang out in the trash can) but by the time I get to them, they’re days late and I don’t want to be that person who replies an eternity later
> 
> I wanted to draw art as a thank you, it seriously means a lot to me, but I’ve been stuck because Anti in this story is like... how do I draw this…? but I’m going to try my best though ;; I know that Anti has his human form and it’s just a normal human drawing but I wanted to add a bit of his coding looks… but it’s proving to be difficult for me, but I won’t give up! Hopefully I’ll have them done by next chapter! <3
> 
> Also, I've spent weeks thinking about a name for Anti since obviously his real name can't be Anti in this story and it can't be a number either. I wanted it to start with an A because I wanted it to resemble Anti in a way, and the name "Ain" has been something I've used before for other things including characters for myself and it actually has an acronym for me, so it's really A.I.N. What does the acronym mean? It's a secret :3


	10. Be Alright

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for the movie _50 First Dates_?  
>  It was made in 2004 though so I should be fine
> 
> -short chapter-

The three agents arrived at the Eclipse guest house after a few hours. They still would have a few more hours to drive afterwards, but the house marked a halfway point and they were content resting for the night here. They were exhausted; Mark and Jack were tired from their mission and Felix still had to stay awake to drive while the others could at least nap in the car. The house was cold and felt empty, not having been used by anyone other than the occasional Eclipse agent who would stop for the night just like they were doing, but it would be enough. There wasn’t any fresh food, though there were a few stacks of nonperishables, but Felix said he would wake up early and pick up something for breakfast. They also still had a box of granola bars hiding in the back of the blonde’s car.

As the three of them stepped inside, it was silent and dark, but it still held an atmosphere of peace in the air. It was quiet and it was what they needed. Mark guided the dog inside and said he was going to stay up for a bit to take care of her and make sure she was alright and Felix stated that he’d be staying up for a while just to watch the house. That left Jack to be the one to go upstairs and find a bedroom, stepping inside the still room and seeing a small bed, a wooden dresser, a clear desk, and an empty closet.

The brunet turned around and locked the door, then walked over slowly to the bed and sat down on the side. He took off his jacket and shoes, placing them gently on the floor, and scooted backwards on the mattress until his back hit the wall and he rested against it. He closed his eyes, taking a moment to let his mind relax, and heard the soft whisper of a sound as Anti appeared next to him, sitting against the wall as well.

None of them said a word, sitting in silence for a few more moments, and the being’s head gently fell to the side, resting on the brunet’s shoulder. The human lifted an arm up to warp around the being, holding his side in a comforting manner, and felt as drops of water seeped into the front of his shirt.

They didn’t need to speak any words to understand what was going to happen; they just stayed still and held onto one another. The brunet moved to rest his head on top of the being’s, arm rubbing the other’s side slowly, and he let the being cry.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, and though he was tired, he knew he would stay up as long as he needed to for this. He listened to the being’s breath, felt his chest moving with the motion, felt the cool difference of the being’s touch against him, and stayed in place. For that moment he wanted the two of them to forget for the night; forget about past pain and struggles, forget about their worries, forget about what was going to burden their futures. For the night, he just wanted the two of them to be.

Once he felt the tears slow to a stop, no longer spreading against his shirt, the brunet softly murmured that they should lay down. He brought the being down with him in his arms, carefully lifting the cover blanket up to lay over them, and rested his head on the pillow. Anti tucked his head underneath the human’s chin, nuzzling closer, and the brunet let him.

Jack stayed awake for a while, eventually dozing on and off for a few short hours, but his mind couldn’t fully relax. He wanted to be awake for Anti, awake in case he was needed. He would sometimes check on the being, wondering if the other went to sleep or was staying awake as well. The being didn’t need to sleep, though, so he wasn’t quite sure whether or not it would be a bad thing to find the being still awake. However, he noticed that Anti’s form seemed tense, and when he looked down at the being’s face, he found that the other had his eyes half open with a frown.

The brunet shuffled around carefully, gently bringing Anti’s figure up from his chest to rest against the pillow as well and softly rested his forehead against the other’s. It was a silent reassurance. When the brunet opened his eyes, he saw the being looking back at him with eyes glossy in the darkness, tears gathering in the corners as a stray drop slid down his cheek.

“How do you know…” The being said barely above a whisper. “How are you so perfect…”

The being’s eyes started getting clouded with more tears, blurring the color of his eyes, and his lips started quivering. Another lone tear escaped, adding streaks to the being’s cheeks, and he shut his eyes closed.

“I-I’m a mess… I can’t keep anything together… I… I…” Anti’s breath hitched as more tears started streaming down the sides of his face now, unable to stop them as his hands clutched onto the fabric under his hands.

Jack brought his hand up, gently cupping the side of Anti’s cheek and brushed his thumb along the side, whipping away tears and smoothing it out as the being opened his eyes slowly and looked back. A single tear from the brunet fell as well as he smiled softly, leaning forward a little more to let their noses barely touch.

“Anti…” He said quietly, looking the other in the eye. “You deserve to be happy.”

The being made a sad hum as he closed his eyes once more and the human brushed away more tears as they fell. They stayed like that for a long while, both needing to calm down in the silence once more, but the human didn’t mind and the being was comforted by it.

Anti opened his eyes eventually, looking back at Jack once more and felt the brunet rub the side of his cheek gently with another soft smile. He brought a hand up to hold the back of the human’s hand on his cheek, sighing lightly as he looked down to the side towards the pillow.

“I don’t remember him…” The being murmured sadly. “I… spent the whole ride here trying to remember… I don’t remember him… his name… his face…”

“You heard him though…” Jack murmured back. “He said he was still your friend, even if your memories were lost.”

“But… I feel like I should… it’s not fair… for this…”

“Anti.” Jack added sadly. “This isn’t your fault, this isn’t Robin’s fault; none of you are to blame. It’s not fair for either of you… but it doesn’t mean to two of you can’t be friends again. We’re going to stop Mil and his team… we’re going to make everything right again… you won’t have to worry anymore….”

“It doesn’t feel right…”

Jack pursed his lips in a small frown as he thought for a moment, then a strange thought came to mind from a memory.

“Do you know about the movie 50 First Dates?”

“No…”

“Well…” Jack laced their fingers together and brought their hands down to peck the top of his hand. “It’s a story about a guy who goes to a café one day and meets a girl.” The brunet started softly. “And they get to know each other, the guy helped her make a waffle house, and it goes well. There’s something special… and they agree to see each other for breakfast the next day. So, the next morning, the guy returns to the café to meet with the girl and when he sees her, he sits down at the table and makes a joke… but then she looks at him… and she doesn’t remember him at all.”

Anti blinked slowly, small frown on his lips as he listened, and looked down at their hands together.

“The guy was confused… he didn’t understand… and the café owner explained that the girl got into an accident a year ago and it messed with her short term memory functions. She no longer had the ability to create new memories; she remembered everything up to the day of the accident, but from then on, she believed every day was October 13th. However, the man started going back to the café every day after that to meet the girl each day like it was the first time, trying different ways to talk to her and slowly got to know her more. She couldn’t live her life like that forever, though, and the guy stared making projects to help the girl remember. He made her a video, adding events of what she missed from the past year and so on, and added in stories of the two of them together.” He huffed a small smile.

“It was sweet… and the two of them started creating new memories… sharing a different first kiss every day… adding to the video… until one day. The girl watched the videos, read notes from her journal she wrote at the end of each day to help herself remember… but she started to see herself as a burden. She didn’t remember the man who spent each day trying to make her fall in love all over again and she had to live with her family who spent their lives protecting her… she felt like she was holding them back from their own lives, preventing them from moving forward. So she eventually broke up with the guy and moved into an institute that helped people like her, and she teaches her art class there as well. The man thought everything was going to go back to the way it was before… back to before she met him and before he met her… but as he was preparing to leave… he knew that he loved her... he loved _her_. It didn’t matter if she couldn’t remember the days they spent together or not; he loved the person that she was. So he ran back to the institute and found her again, and although she didn’t remember him at all, when she brought him to her art studio in the building, all across the room were paintings of him. The movie ends with the woman waking up one morning to watch a video that told her about her accident, but ended with a video of her wedding. The two of them got married and even had a child… and the two of them were happy.”

Anti couldn’t look him in the eyes after the story ended, instead still looking at their hands linked together and fiddled with their fingers for a bit. The brunet tightened his grip, giving it a gentle squeeze, and booped their noses together.

“However broken you think you are… I’ll never love you any less… whatever problems you have to go through, we’ll go through together.” Jack murmured and brought their hands up once more to cup the being’s cheek and tilt his head upwards ever so slightly.

The brunet leaned forward, gently brushing their lips together in a delicate kiss, and felt the other return the soft touch.

“You’re not alone… okay?” He added with a small smile.

The being looked up, eyes soft, though the tears were now cleared away, and he brushed his thumb atop the human’s hand.

“I don’t deserve you…” He murmured quietly.

“You deserve more.” The human responded.

“ _You_ deserve more.” The being huffed. “I’ve… never met another person like you before… you’re so surreal… beautiful inside and out…”

“So are you, angel.” Jack smiled.

The being smiled back, placing another delicate kiss against the human’s lips and shifted downward to rest his head against the human’s chest once more.

“You need to sleep…” He mumbled, voice quiet in the still darkness. “I’ll be okay.”

“We’ll be okay.” Jack said, nose bumping the top of the being’s head, hair brushing softly.

Anti brought his hand down, slipping it underneath the bottom of the human’s shirt and slid his hand upwards, brushing against the skin and rubbing the human’s side with a cool touch.

“We’ll be okay…” The being settled, holding the human.

The two of them were then able to fall asleep for the few hours they had left of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Nothing heals  
> the past like time  
> and they can’t steal  
> the love you’re born to find”  
> \- Be Alright
> 
> A lonely cat lady can dream, can't she?
> 
> I finished some of the drawings though :3 However, I don't want anyone to look at these and think that these pics are absolute or strict, etc. I'm actually really curious about what you guys have been imagining Anti to look like in this story; I feel like everyone has a little different idea and that's really cool! Also, the drawings are more like ideas themselves; I was practicing with a new brush on one of them too. Whenever I mention Anti "turning into his coding form" I've always pictured him to be a black human figure with literal green codes like 0's and 1's. Yet, only one picture has the binary code and it's only a background. Basically, continue to have fun imagining him how you want to :3  
> [Picture Link](https://galaxykitty42.tumblr.com/post/178993946155/past-and-present-for-hacking-life)  
> [Picture Link 2](https://galaxykitty42.tumblr.com/post/178993634250/little-idea-drawings-for-hacking-life-and-though)


	11. For a Moment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are normal people who update at regular times or at least when they have a clear mind, and then there’s me who is like this:  
> It’s 1 A.M. TIME to dAncE to some mUsic that’s not even in EngliSh! What is even g o i n g o n? This chapter I’m writing surely must be good, right? Ah, the things that happen when I’m tired.
> 
> Once again, just ignore my stupidity; have this 5,000+ something word chapter.

The two of them woke up to the sound of a knock on the door. Jack had locked it last night, preventing anyone from walking in a seeing Anti in his human form.

“I went out and got breakfast.” Felix’s voice called out.

Jack grumbled as he grabbed the pillow in his arms and pressed his face closer into the softness of it. He heard the footsteps on the other side of the door fade away, signaling the blonde had walked off, then felt the being nuzzle his cheek in an attempt to get him up. Though the brunet wasn’t going to complain, as he would gladly stay up the whole night if Anti had asked him too, it didn’t change the fact that he didn’t get as much sleep as he usually did.

He then felt a soft touch against his cheek, recognizing it easily as the being kissing him there lightly, and he smiled as he turned his face around on the pillow to see the other.

“Hey.” The being murmured softly, bringing a hand up to tuck a strand of brown hair behind the human’s ear. “Did you sleep okay?”

The brunet smiled and brought a hand up himself to boop the being’s nose.

“I’m fine.” He smiled, blinking softly as he slowly got himself to wake up more. “Eclipse doesn’t like to give us two missions in a row if they can help it; today is a sure day off for us. I can take it easy.”

The being smiled back and gave him a few more moments before taking the covers off the two of them to get up. The brunet whined in protest but sat up anyway, stretching a bit and feeling a little uncomfortable since he fell asleep still wearing his clothes from yesterday and not proper pajamas. He made a mental note to bathe when he returned to the main headquarters and he could put on more comfortable clothing then.

As he slowly cleared his mind from sleep, remembering more about the mission last night, Jack felt himself tense up and frown. Robin explained what Mil and his organization did; they experiment on real living things, sometimes _humans_ , and Anti is one of them.

He has to tell Mark and Felix about it. If he wants to stop Mil and save the lives of those who could get tricked into it in the future, then Mark and Felix need to know exactly what they are dealing with. He can’t keep hiding Anti either; there’s no question that some way or another they would find out about him somehow, so it would be best for Jack to tell them about it personally rather than them coming to a conclusion by themselves, most likely not willing to trust the being as easily that way either.

Was Anti lonely, too? He hasn’t thought of that before, but the being only has Jack to talk to. The brunet was never fond of hiding things either, and if Mark and Felix knew, then he could talk to them about Anti as well, whether it was about the other not being a human or just to talk about the two of them being in a relationship. They were always telling Jack that he needed to find a partner, and now that he has, he hasn’t been able to tell them about it.

Anti noticed the solemn atmosphere and leaned over to bump their shoulders together, silently asking what if he was doing alright, and the brunet sighed.

“We have to tell them about you.” He said softly.

He was expecting the being to hesitate or show some type of concern or worry, but when he turned his head to face the other, he was met with a soft smile.

“I was guessing as much.” The being hummed. “So you can tell them how you think is best.”

“Aren’t you worried, though?” The brunet asked, frowning slightly, and the other sighed.

“Of course… but this is something that needs to be done. They need to know.”

Jack sighed once more and looked down at his hands, fiddling with them for a moment, then heard another knock on the door.

“Jackaboy! Fe brought food!” Mark said from the other side.

“Yeah, I know.” The brunet answered, stretching a bit more as he stood up out of bed and grabbed his jacket from the floor, slipping his shoes on as well.

The sound of footprints, or rather, paw prints ran across the wooden floor and the two men inside the room up at the sound, briefly having forgotten there was a dog in the house.

“Chica wants to see you too!” Mark continued, giggling at the end as shuffling was heard from the other side of the door.

“Chica?” Jack questioned, turning to Anti in the room and raising an eyebrow.

“That’s what I named the puppy!”

“But you only name an animal when you’re going to keep it.”

“Yeah.” Mark said without hesitation. “She’s adorable!”

Anti grinned and Jack huffed as he rolled his eyes, turning back towards the door and waited for the being to return hidden in his phone before opening it. He was immediately greeted by a fluff of gold, almost being knocked over since he wasn’t expecting that, but managed to stand his ground. He leaned down to pick up the puppy; she was young and not too difficult to carry yet, but he could tell she would grow soon enough. The puppy licked his face happily, tail swishing quickly as she squirmed around in his arms out of excitement.

“Does Eclipse even allow pets?” The brunet questioned as he held the happy puppy a little higher in the air in a playful manner before setting her back down. “There haven’t been any before.”

“Well now there will be one.” Mark nodded, then an idea came to mind and he smiled widely. “She could be like the class pet! Except it’s more like the job pet… base pet? Ah, I’m sure everyone would love her!”

“Where will she got to the bathroom? And what about taking her on walks?”

“There are those indoor grass things you can get and the base is huge; we could have a race there!”

“You’re going to have to change those grass things the entire time she’s there. It’ll be like changing a baby’s diaper except she’ll never grow out of the diapers.”

“I am prepared to take that responsibility.” Mark said with a serious face, corner of his lips smirking up a little at the end as he tried to hide his smile.

“Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn ya.” Jack shrugged, walking past the raven-haired man and heading towards the stairs, just in time to hear Felix calling from a room hidden from view.

“The food is getting cold!” The blonde yelled to them. “That and I’m going to eat it if you guys are down here!”

“No, my pancakes!” Mark hollered back and Jack couldn’t stop a scoff as he grinned.

“Mark has a dog now, Fe. You can’t do shit like that anymore lest you want to feel the wrath of the mighty Chica!”

They heard Felix laughing from the other room as they stepped down the stairs, turning past a corner to find the dining room where food was laid out in to-go boxes.

“Ah, yes, the mighty Chica, that sure sounds very intimidating.” The blonde huffed as he stuck his fork in a stack of pancakes and cut out a small triangle.

Felix was eating at one corner of the table while the others’ food was left at a spot at the head of the table and one across from the blonde. It was the best way for the three of them to be close enough to talk, and more importantly, try to get away with stealing food from the others’ plates. Jack took the spot at the head of the table, leaving Mark to sit at his left, across from Felix. The to-go boxes each had a small stack of pancakes accompanied with two pieces of bacon and a scrambled egg. Felix himself had gotten an apple, a slice already cut out of it as a silver knife sat beside it. The three of them sat in silence for a bit as they took in the warm scents of breakfast and savored the first few bites. Then the blonde finally started the conversation.

“So, I turned in a basic report last night after you two went to sleep.” He started, pausing to take a bite of egg. “But I wanna know what happened when you were still in the building after the power basically went out.” He continued as he looked over at Jack.

The brunet frowned. He had prepared himself for this conversation, he knew he had to this, but it felt too fast. Everything was happening too quickly this morning. He couldn’t keep hiding Anti from them anymore, though; their mission is important and he needs to do the right thing to protect further people from harm. Anti had given him the okay, it was time they knew.

“Robin was there.” The brunet said slowly.

“…who?” Mark quirked his head to the side, though quickly turned it towards Chica who put her paws up on his lap.

“Oh, that’s Torkar’s first name.” 

“You saw him?” Felix knit his eyebrows together, pausing from eating as he looked at the brunet. “That’d make sense, if I’m remembering correctly, Primary is where he works…” The blonde seemed to be thinking some things over. “What was he doing?”

Jack really wished he had a bit more time, just enough to form the sentences in his head and plan out how he was going to explain this to the others. He pursed his lips, looking down at his plate of food, and hummed.

“He told me what Mil is doing.”

And so he explained everything that Robin had told him; telling the story of how the strawberry blonde joined the organization thinking it was innocent when he was instead being lied to, explained how he became friends with another man named Ain, explained everything that had happened up to the end when Ain was used in a human experiment that had successfully created an artificial intelligence human hybrid. Mark was silent, long having put his fork down and ignored his food as he listened while Felix held his apple in one hand with the knife in the other, occasionally poking the apple as he frowned throughout the story. Jack then explained how dangerous this is, that not only are innocent lives being sacrificed for this, like the poor girl they had met when they first entered Primary, but in the wrong hands these people could cause a lot of harm as well if they were made.

“And they _have_ one.” Felix growled as he cut another slice of the apple in his hand only to let it fall onto the table out of frustration.

“Oh my god…” Mark murmured, staring blankly in front of him as he struggled to comprehend everything.

“They have one of those things; they could hack into Eclipse, they could ruin us! If this experiment they’re doing makes these super computer creations, then they could take over _everything_.” Felix frowned more. “They have one of them, and that’s only the one that Torkar told you about.”

“Robin would’ve told me if they had more, and they don’t have any of them right now either.” Jack sighed, rubbing his forehead as he stared at his food he no longer wanted to eat either.

“We don’t know if that man is our friend.” Felix glared, not trying to be rude but clearly still struggling with the news. “He could be lying, they could be trying to lead us into a false sense of security.”

“He’s not lying.” The brunet said firmly, glaring back at the blonde. “He’s not the type of person who would do that; he’s a good man.”

“How the hell do you know that?” Fe said, raising his voice. “He’s working for the _enemy_ in their _main base of operations_ ; I don’t think he can be any more untrustworthy than that!”

“Why couldn’t this have been a mission about evil pie?” Mark sighed quietly, leaning his head down on his hand propped up on the table.

“You need to trust _me_ when I say this.” Jack grumbled.

“Damn, we can’t trust anything we see online anymore, can we?” Fe continued to argue, grip of the knife and apple tightening. “None of our computers or tech or anything!”

“Felix, they can’t do that yet. That experiment only worked the way they wanted it to once and they don’t have him.”

“They could be lying, Jack, I keep saying this.”

“Robin isn’t lying!”

“He could be!”

“They don’t have him because _I do_.”

Well… the secret was out now.

Felix paused, mouth open like he was going to make another protest, but nothing came out. Mark’s eyes slowly turned to look up at the brunet as well, blinking as if he couldn’t process what had happened.

“Y-… you...” Felix then pointed the knife at the brunet, simply because it happened to be what was in his hand, but it appeared threatening as his voice was raised once more. “What the _fuck_?!”

Before Jack could try to explain himself, the air in front of him blurred as the coded being suddenly appeared, grabbing the knife out of the blonde’s hand and pulling it away. It surprised the three of them, Mark being even more astounded while Jack furrowed his eyebrows together in worry. Anti held the knife in his hand, close to his chest to keep it away from the others, and he glared at the blonde with a scowl.

“Oh fucking- what?!” Felix hastily stumbled out of his chair, grabbing his gun he had left hooked to his belt from when he went out to get breakfast, and pointed it at the being.

“Felix, wait!” Jack yelped as he pushed the chair back to get out from behind Anti and rush to stand between him and the blonde. “Don’t you dare pull that trigger.”

“Jack, you need to get the hell away from that _thing_.”

“He’s not a thing!”

“It has a knife!”

“And you have a gun, Fe!”

Jack briefly turned his head back to see Anti, watching the being’s eyes dart between everyone and look down at the knife in his hands. The brunet frowned and stepped backwards to get closer to him, gently taking the knife out of his hands and placed it on the table as he held the being’s wrist to try to reassure him. He led the being backwards, keeping his back to the being so he could still face Felix, but let there be some space between the others.

“Put down the gun.” Jack said, more calmly this time as he held his other hand up.

“No, get away from that… that…” Felix stuttered, staring wide eyed.

“He’s not going to hurt anyone.” Jack said, whine starting to slip into his voice.

This wasn’t how he was planning this conversation to go at all.

“Jack, this isn’t something you can just… this can’t just…” The blonde ran his other hand through his hair in frustration. “That thing is dangerous.”

“He’s not going to hurt you; it’s _okay_.” Jack said sadly. “Just… put the gun down, _please_. Let us talk about this…”

“I don’t trust that thing to be anywhere near us.”

“He’s not a thing, Felix, he’s a person!”

“That is not a person!”

“Yes he is!”

The two of them started arguing more, voices going back up and Jack instinctually tightened the grip he had on the being’s wrist. Felix wouldn’t put the gun down at Jack started getting defensive, backing up more and mentally preparing to leave the house to get away from the others. Chica had already left the room when things started getting too loud, leaving Mark to watch by himself.

“I told you that you needed to trust me!” The brunet continued.

“Yeah, trust that thing right after you told us how dangerous they could be and how they could destroy everything we know!”

“He’s not like that!”

“God, Jack, why do you act like everything is your friend?! You should know not to trust anything; our job literally requires us to act in deception ourselves!”

“Felix, please, we can’t keep arguing like this.”

“Then that thing needs to be… controlled, gone, something, _I don’t know_ , not like this.”

“Felix…” Jack said, voice going down as he was losing his energy to keep fighting.

This wasn’t what he wanted.

The blonde didn’t respond, though the gun was still pointed dangerously at the two of them. Jack looked down, eyes starting to tear up, and he sighed as he finally realized he was holding Anti’s wrist too tightly and loosened up.

“Felix… I…”

“He’s the one you love, isn’t he?” Mark murmured softly, bringing Jack’s attention back as the brunet looked up at him.

Mark said _he_.

There was another moment of silence. Then-

“Yes…” The brunet answered truthfully. “He is.”

Felix made a strangled noise, giving them all a strange look mixed with utter confusion, but thankfully put the gun down as he frowned.

“What… the everloving fuck…” The blonde walked back over to his previous spot at the table, sitting down at the chair and leaning back against it.

Mark glanced over at the blonde, watching carefully to make sure he wasn’t going to do anything sudden again, then slowly walked over to the brunet and the being.

“May I?” The raven-haired man asked carefully, looking over at the being behind the brunet and showing he meant no harm.

Jack took a calming breath and stepped to the side, giving the being a gentle squeeze at his wrist before letting go. Anti looked hesitant, staring back at the brunet with a worried look in his eyes, but turned towards the raven-haired man to see him.

“So you’re the one who has taken the heart of our little Jackaboy.” Mark smiled warmly and held a hand out. “I’m Mark, and the uptight blonde over there is Felix.”

Anti looked down at the hand, blinking for a moment, then gently took the greeting.

“Ah, yes, I know the two of you.” The being replied as he shook the other man’s hand. “I’ve been on a few missions with you two.”

Felix groaned from his spot at the table, eyeing the group and leaning forward to rest the palm of his hand on his temple.

“This is… this is what untrustworthy people say.” The blonde grumbled. “It knows who we are…”

“ _He_ , Felix; Anti is still a person.” Jack huffed.

“Anti? Is that your name?” Mark perked up, trying to ignore Fe’s complaints.

“Yes.”

“And I gotta say, you look remarkably like our dear Jacky.”

“Why am I ‘little’ and ‘dear’?” The brunet rolled his eyes, but smiled lightly.

“Oh, I can change my appearance into anything, but it’s easier if I have someone to base it off of.” Anti explained, stepping back as his form changed to coding only to reappear looking just like Mark.

“Woahoho oh my god that is so cool! Felix, look at that!”

“I see.” The blonde muttered. “Now we can’t trust anyone either, seeing as it can-“

“He.” Jack and Mark both cut it.

“… seeing as _he_ can imitate anyone now.”

“Felix, you’re the brains and all, our good techy guy, and I _know_ you are very smart and as your partner I know you do your job well, but let me do _my_ job here. I’m the one who works with people, I can get a pretty good feel for a person as a first impression. If you’re the brains of the operation, then I’m like… the heart.” Mark smiled at that, looking back at Jack and Anti and only smiled more. “Jack… as your friend, I trust you, and as an Eclipse agent, I’m looking at you and don’t see any signs that you’re lying. And Anti… based on that handshake… you’re a lot softer than you let on, aren’t you?”

Jack smiled at that, letting out a sigh of relief as he stepped over to stand next to the being who had shifted to return to his usual appearance and linked their hands together down at their sides.

Maybe this won’t be as bad as he thought.

Then Felix groaned out another complaint as he poked his half eaten apple with just his hand.

“Oh come on, Fe, stop being such a hard ass, otherwise you won’t get invited to their wedding!” Mark grinned.

The blonde only groaned more, head falling onto an empty space on the table, and the raven-haired man chuckled at that.

“Wedding?” Anti then asked as he look over at Jack with a confused gaze.

“Oh… you… you haven’t looked that up before, huh?” The brunet mumbled, looking away from the being as he tried to think about how to explain something like that. “It’s something that… hmm… it’s a thing that makes couples officially get together.”

“Ah, I see… so how would we have a wedding?” The being asked innocently, causing the brunet to finally blush as he stared at the wall ahead of him while the raven-haired man smiled widely.

“Felix, oh my gosh, Felix, you can’t possibly still think he’s a threat, just look at this.” Mark said in awe. “I will definitely help you two with your wedding. I’ll be your best man; I’ll be both of your best mans.”

Anti smiled at that, not knowing too much about what was going on, but Mark’s reactions seemed to have calmed him down completely from the earlier events.

“Well… a wedding is kind of important and usually it’s only a onetime thing…” Jack tried to explain to the being. “And usually the couple will wait until they know for sure that they want to spend the rest of their lives with that person to ask for that… and then there’s even more time spent just to plan for that day.”

“But I have already told you that you are the person I want to stay with for the rest of my life.”

Jack could feel his face heat up more from that, very much aware of the others who could hear that just as much as he could, and glanced over at Mark to see his face looking like it was going to break with how much the raven-haired man was smiling.

“Wait… how long have you been with… uh… Anti?” Felix asked, frown still present, but he at least looked like he was trying to be a little calm about it.

“You remember that one mission I went on when I said my tech seemed odd and may have a malfunction and I called you to ask if you had anything to do with it?” Jack said back hesitantly.

Felix frowned more, eyes looking down at the table as he thought back to then, then his eyes widened in disbelief as his mouth opened in silence.

“That… that was… that was so long ago, my god, Jack; how many months ago was that?”

“I don’t know… a lot?”

“Wait, you’ve been keeping Anti a secret for months?” Mark frowned, imitating a look that Chica probably could’ve made. “I could’ve been planning your wedding even earlier.”

Jack held back a laugh from that, but smiled none the less as he watched Mark save the morning from being a complete disaster. He’d have to find the time to thank him properly later for this.

“I… I still can’t trust him, though.” Felix mumbled. “And there’s still Mil and his organization and if he could make one person like this then he can make more.”

“Oh…” Mark hummed softly, shoulders falling sadly as he looked down himself. “Hah… kind of forgot about Mil there for a second…”

“What if you looked at my coding?” Anti offered and the three other men turned back towards him, all three not quite understanding what that meant. “Felix, you’re better at things that relate to technology and coding and things of that nature. It might help if you looked at the coding itself rather than my human appearance.”

The blonde sat up more at that, looking at the being with a new type of curiosity and pursed his lips.

“That… makes sense.” He nodded and stood up from his chair once more, head looking around for his laptop and left the room.

He returned shortly with one of the laptops he brought for the mission, moving the forgotten food to the side of the table to make room for his device before setting it down. He opened it up and typed in the password, waiting for everything to boot up as he opened up a file to add some notes before he looked back over at the being.

“So… how would I…?”

Anti understood what the blonde was going to ask and his form faded away, leaving the three humans to wait in silence before the blonde’s laptop beeped. Mark and Jack walked over to see the screen better, waiting for something to happen, then suddenly the screen had a window that was covered in the green coding that Jack was familiar with himself. The other two men gasped, never having seen something like this before, and the blonde hesitantly started typing something as he tried to navigate around the coding.

“What am I… looking at here?” He muttered, eyes watching as different sections of coding appeared and disappeared.

Then a word document popped up as a small box in the corner.

“What you are looking at here is me.” The text read and Jack smiled a little as the other two gasped in awe once more.

“Woah, he can hear us?” Mark said in wonder.

“Yes.” The text added underneath the first sentence.

“This is…” Felix paused as he looked through the coding more, eyes shining and Jack could see the pure curiosity and awe in them. “This is… I don’t know how to describe it… it’s… amazing.”

“Ooo, what’s it like?” Mark asked as he watched the blonde poke through the being’s file more. “Is it like you’re being tickled?”

“It’s not…” Anti paused after that, probably to think of an answer, then typed slowly. “…pleasant. I would compare it to someone prodding through your mind. It’s not comfortable but… Felix isn’t doing anything harmful.”

Jack was then reminded of when Anti had explained his life at the organization with Mil. He didn’t go into much detail about it, but the being had mentioned how the workers there would do something that caused him pain if he stepped out of line. Was it something like this? Would they directly mess with his coding like this? That does sound like it would be hurtful and Jack shuddered at the thought of someone poking through his own mind and screwing with it to hurt him.

He looked back at Felix, though, and still only saw innocent wonder and possibly a small smile on his lips. Coding was part of his profession, this could be his version of opening presents on Christmas day for him.

“I’ve… never seen anything like this before.” The blonde said softly as he continued typing, though Jack noticed that he appeared to be more careful this time. “It’s like the coding… is alive?”

“I am.” Anti replied plainly and the other two men laughed softly.

“But… something as… intricate as this couldn’t be controlled so easily.” Felix said, starting to mumble more for himself rather than for the others. “Even if Mil created another person like this… would he be able to do anything with them? If they are still… human, then they would have their own mind still, wouldn’t they?”

“I don’t have my old memories.” The being started to type, Jack sensing the hesitance even if it was only through a screen. “I did what his team said partly because they were threatening but also because I had nothing else… with no memories and no knowledge about anything else… I didn’t know how to tell what was right or wrong… I followed orders because it was the only thing I knew how to do.”

“Oh…” Fe hummed, frowning a little now. “Well… that’s still not good but… it’s not as bad as I thought before…”

The blonde was about to add another comment, but another beep from his laptop cut him off and he briefly switched to his new notification to read it.

“Oh, Eclipse wants to know how we are doing and when we’ll be back at the base.” He informed and sat back in his chair with a sigh. “We should probably start heading back.”

The others hummed an agreement and the laptop flashed for a second as Anti left the computer, returning back to the brunet’s phone.

“You guys have to keep this a secret for now, though… from Eclipse and everyone else.” Jack murmured and took out his phone to look at the screen sadly.

“Of course.” Mark tried to smile reassuringly, though Felix only sighed and stared at his now empty laptop screen.

“I’m not used to keeping secrets like this… Eclipse is a part of our lives that… is hard to hide things from.” The blonde muttered.

“Anti has been living with me there for months now… and I know you’re still having trouble trusting him but… if he really did have ill intentions, then he would have done something by now.” Jack tried to reason and the blonde sighed once more.

“Jack…” He glanced up at the brunet, studying his face, and let his shoulder relax downwards. “The professional part of me that works for Eclipse is telling me this is dangerous but… as your friend…” He pursed his lips and closed his eyes. “As your friend, I want to trust you… so you better be right about this.”

“Thank you.” The brunet smiled softly, leaning over slightly to give the blonde a small hug, then stepped back.

“Well, let’s get out stuff back to the car and we’ll be on our way, yeah?” Fe said and closed his laptop only to pause when he got a notification on his phone, noticing Mark got one as well.

The two of them checked their phones and both muttered “what” out of confusion. Jack told them to let him see and smirked when he saw the familiar symbol of “c:” on both of their phones.

“That’s Anti.”

“Anti has my number?” Mark said puzzled by smiled as he texted back.

“I explained to you about how he’s basically a technology god, did I?” Jack huffed a laugh. “Getting into phones is a piece of cake for him.” He added and felt himself feel a little proud about that.

Wow, he was bragging about his partner. He kind of liked being able to do that now.

He felt himself starting to wish this whole Mil problem could just be done with already so he could start to spend time with Anti like this more. It was… nice to talk about him like that… like a partner he was proud to be with. Because he _was_ proud to be with him.

So let this whole Mil situation just go by quickly… can’t it please?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The FMA reference is back once more, but it has more meaning this time, doesn’t it? No one mentioned anything about how I updated ch 10 on October 13th while I talked about a movie that repeated the day October 13th too. I know a lot of my writing isn’t really planned out or anything, but I love to put in references and hidden meanings like that alllll the time. Want to know another one? Look at the title, “Hacking Life”, and just think about it. I’ll explain it at the end in the last chapter, but maybe someone can get it early.
> 
> Also, I should probably explain how to pronounce the name Ain. It’s like the German word for one, “eins” except take off the s so it’s just “ein”. It’s pronounced like “eye-n” if that makes any sense.


	12. Calm Before

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m pretty sure I spent more time staring blankly at the word document than I spent typing.  
> Seriously, I would stare at my laptop and type nothing and end up walking away to do something else instead: I learned a new song on piano, drew a little picture, had some good ol’ comfort icecream, realized I’m almost out of that good ol’ comfort icecream.
> 
> But hey! We’re almost done with the story! (I'm so happy right now that I finished this chapter cause gosh it was taking me so long- I've seriosuly spent days staring at my laptop for this)  
> And also-  
> *mature chapter warning*

During the drive home, Mark continued to ask questions about Anti, wanting to know how long they’ve been together and what missions were like with the being as well as what missions they had done together without the raven-haired man or the blonde knowing. Felix, on the other hand, stayed mostly silent throughout the ride back. He was certainly listening, but Jack could guess he was still struggling with conflicting emotions when it came to the coded being.

And then there was Chica, sitting happily in the back seat with Jack, occasionally looking out the window, then walking over to the brunet and nuzzled his side looking for attention. 

When they returned to the base, Mark picked up the golden-furred dog in his arms and smiled widely, apparently more excited to show the new pet to the others rather than worried about it. Felix had stepped out of the driver’s side to lean against the closed door, arms crossed and an odd frown on his face.

“We’re going to have to turn in a formal report about the mission.” The blonde sighed and looked over at the entrance to the base from the parking lot.

“You’re usually the one who does that when we do group work.” Mark shrugged and pet the scruff of Chica’s fur.

“Yes…” Felix said with an unamused face, lips forming a tight frown. “Except now I have to lie in it.”

“You don’t have to lie, per se…” Mark said, eyes wide. “You just leave out the part about Anti. Uh… wasn’t there another name mentioned, En?”

“Ain?” Jack asked, brow knit together. “That was Anti’s human name.”

“Yeah, that. So, in the report, talk about the organization’s experimentation and you can use Ain’s name and all that, so Eclipse will know that Mil and his team are dangerous and this needs to be taken care of as soon as possible, but we don’t let them know that we have Anti with us.”

“They’re going to think the same thing that I did, that they have Ain- Anti, whatever name we’re using here, and is a threat. They need to know that the organization currently doesn’t have any successful experiments in their possession right now, but we can’t prove it by saying we have Anti.”

“Just make it vague, like ‘there was one successful attempt at this experiment, though it is no longer a threat’ or something like that. Eclipse will know that they can and have successfully created a person like that, but as long as we act quickly, we’ll be alright.”

Felix grumbled and frowned more, obviously frustrated with the situation, but pushed off from the side of the car and started heading towards the entrance.

“Well, now that that’s out of the way, how about I show you to your new room.” Mark cooed at the dog in his arms.

Jack watched as the blonde walked out of sight, lips pursed, but knew this was just how Felix was. He was a smart man; he’d be able to come up with a report that he could turn in without endangering Anti’s presence here. So for now, Jack should focus on relaxing before the mission he knew they would have soon enough to end Mil’s organization once and for all. The brunet turned to watch as Mark walked towards the entrance as well, still carrying the adorable golden dog since there wasn’t a leash for her yet, and let out a sigh.

They were okay.

For today, they were okay.

The brunet returned to his room, immediately taking off his shoes and jacket as he felt himself finally calm down in the safety and familiarity of his room. Anti materialized next to him, following silently as the human walked over to the bathroom and turned on the water for the bath. He stretched a bit to try to ease his muscles from sitting in a car for too long and casually got undressed as he waited for the water to fill the tub once it was warm enough. The being watched curiously, stepping closer to the bathtub to watch the water rise, and tilted his head when the brunet added a bit of soap to create a thin layer of bubbles over the surface. He then turned off the water and stepped inside once it was to his liking, scooting back to the end and silently thanked Eclipse for having nice rooms. They may not have a lot of space, but they made up for it with the quality of the rooms. The bathtub was big enough that the brunet could happily stretch out and relax if he were alone or he could have someone else with him without it feeling cramped.

So he called the being over to join him, motioning towards the empty space in front of him in the water, and smiled softly when the being’s form flickered for a second to remove the clothes as he sat inside the tub as well. The brunet then wrapped his arms around the being’s middle, leaning him backwards so they were chest to back, and rested his head on the wall as the being rested against his shoulder.

“Feelin’ cuddly?” Anti asked quietly, small smile on his lips as he moved a hand up to gently tap at of Jack’s arms.

“Mmm… somethin’ like that.” The brunet responded just as quietly and closed his eyes as he let the warm water soothe him.

They stayed like that for a long moment, neither of them having anything urgent to get to today, and Jack was happy for the comfort of peace he was able to find. He eventually moved to lean forward, making Anti sit up as well, and carefully cupped water in his hands to bring it up to the being’s hair. Anti was surprised, making a confused hum, and turned his head to the side to watch the brunet with eyebrows lowered in thought. Once the being’s hair was damp enough, the brunet grabbed the shampoo bottle sitting on the side of the tub and uncapped the lid, adding a small portion of the soapy substance to his hand before closing the bottle. He then brought his hands back up to the being’s hair, starting to lather the shampoo in as small bubbles and soapy suds began to form. Anti leaned into his touch, eyes closing and made a contented hum, but there was still confusion showing on his face.

“I don’t have a normal human body that gets dirty… I don’t need to wash my hair or anything…” The being murmured and Jack smiled.

“I know…” The brunet said as he rubbed the soap in and started making small patterns in the other’s hair. “I like doing this, though.”

The being hummed again at that but seemed happy with that answer as he turned his head to face the front once more and let the human continue with what he was doing. It was slow, the brunet taking his time with everything and finding himself smiling more at the thought of taking care of the being like this even if he didn’t necessarily need it. He leaned forward to place a chaste kiss on the back of the being’s neck, moving then to place another kiss under the being’s jaw where he could reach and murmured for the being to lean forward so he could rinse the soap out. Anti did so, hair falling down as he ducked his head so Jack could cup more water and begin to rinse the suds out. It was just a slow, the brunet being careful and thorough, and once he was finally done, he leaned both of them to sit up straight again.

Anti turned around in his place, now facing one another as he chuckled slightly and reached over to grab the shampoo bottle himself. He smiled as he said he wanted to do the same for the human and repeated the process once more. The being then smirked as he started playing around with the brunet’s hair, making a soapy mohawk, and leaned forward to peck the other’s lips.

It was nice; this is what Jack needed today.

They eventually did need to get out of the tub, though, so Jack cleaned off the rest of his body and unplugged the drain once he was done. He stepped out onto the bathroom mat, grabbing a large fluffy towel and wrapped it around his shoulders. He then felt a pair of arms wrap around him as well, holding the towel snuggly as they swayed a little and the being nuzzled his cheek over his shoulder. Somehow the being was completely dry. Jack was still trying to understand the other completely, knowing he essentially had a human body and could do anything normally like a human, but he also had the added tricks of his coding side.

Anti seemed happy as he grabbed the towel and brought it up to the brunet’s hair, covering his face as well as he stepped in front of him and playfully dried his hair with exaggerated movements. He then let the towel fall around the brunet’s shoulders, bringing the ends of the towel up to the human’s cheeks as he squished them together and chuckled before leaning forward to kiss the human’s nose.

“You’re being childish.” Jack huffed but his tone was warm.

“Good.” The being smiled wider and continued to dry off the other in the warm towel. “You need to relax and have a little fun.”

“My job doesn’t give any room for fun.”

“Quit your job.” Anti responded and he was obviously joking, smile still on his face.

“You’re right. I should go do something else, something fun.”

“Play videogames.”

“Playing videogames for a living, wouldn’t that be nice.”

The two of them chuckled at that, eventually walking back out to the bedroom so Jack could put on a comfortable pair of pajamas before laying down on his bed and snuggling underneath the covers. Anti joined him, lifting up the covers to slip behind him as he wrapped an arm around Jack’s torso and held them closely together, placing one more kiss against the human’s shoulder before the two of them drifted off into a comfortable sleep.

 

…

 

Jack woke up with the remnants of a dream still lingering in his mind. His eyes were still closed and he hummed, noticing the familiar weight of the other wasn’t next to him. He reached an arm over slightly to feel the side of the bed, finding Anti wasn’t there either and finally opened his eyes to look. The room was dark, seeing as Eclipse’s headquarters was underground so there wasn’t any sunlight, but there was a nightlight giving off a soft bluish glow. He lifted his head up to look around the room, briefly thinking that maybe the other had moved to do something inside the computer again, but then found Anti was instead sitting by the foot of the bed with his back against the wall. The brunet murmured a good morning and sat up, rubbing his eyes with a small yawn.

The being was looking forwards, face dull in the low light, but Jack was able to see a sad look in his eyes. The brunet shuffled over to him, moving the blanket out of the way so he could scoot closer, and poked the being’s stomach.

“Hey.” He said softly and the being turned his head slightly to smile at the other.

“Hey.”

“You doin’ okay?”

The being just shrugged, taking the hand that had poked him to hold it in place.

“A lot happened, huh?” Jack guessed. “I suppose you’d need more than one night of rest to feel better.”

“I’m fine.” The being hummed.

“Well…” The brunet started, then moved over to sit on the being’s lap. “I can help you relax.” He then cupped the being’s cheeks and leaned forward to place a soft kiss against him.

The being smiled at that, remembering when he had said the same thing to the brunet, and wrapped his arms around the brunet’s waist.

“I am relaxing, can’t you see?”

“I can see that.” Jack said, smiling more as he pecked the being’s lips over and over.

He ran his hands down from the being’s cheeks, fingers gliding down his neck and chest before sliding up under the being’s shirt. Anti pulled the brunet closer, capturing the other’s lips for another kiss as their tongues slid together. He moved his hands to hold on to Jack’s ass, causing the brunet to smirk as he lifted the being’s shirt up more.

“Off.” He said between kisses as he pressed the palms of his hands against the being’s chest.

Anti didn’t hesitate as the shirt glitched and disappeared, then smiled himself.

“You too.” He said back.

Jack ran his palms up further against the being’s chest, then leaned back from kissing the other as he moved his hips forward to position his ass flush against the other’s lap. He tried to flaunt a little, lifting his shirt up slightly in a teasing manner as he moved his hips against the being. He liked seeing the other’s reactions, green eyes watching him with adoration, and he leaned forward to steal another kiss before he finally pulled his shirt over his head and threw it to the side. Anti then moved his hands to rub the human’s sides as he nipped along the human’s neck, tongue licking at the skin as he made a trail up to the other’s ear.

“You have no idea how much I want you.” He said in a hushed tone, licking the side of the other’s ear.

Jack moved the being’s hands away from him so he could get up. He stepped onto the floor and walked over to the drawer by the bed, grabbing the bottle from there to set it on the bed before he turned back around to face the other. He slid off his pajama pants, kicking them to the side as he took a step forward. He slipped his fingers under the band of his boxers after that, still teasing, but finally pushed them off to join his other clothes. The rest of Anti’s clothes glitched as well, leaving the two of them naked, and the brunet crawled back onto the bed over to the being’s lap once more. They were both already starting to get hard from anticipation, cocks pressed against one another between their stomachs, and the brunet put his hands on the being’s shoulders.

“Then take me.” The brunet murmured with a smirk.

Their lips met, tongues together, and the being pat the side of the bed to find the bottle before he opened it and coated his fingers with the substance. Jack felt the cool fingers brush against him, expecting the being to start slow, but was caught off guard when two of the digits pressed inside. He broke the kiss to catch his breath, seeing the being’s strange tongue once more as he was reminded about it, and breathed out a puff of air.

“In a hurry?” He chuckled softly, feeling the being stretching him as he moved his hips a little.

“I want you.” Anti hummed, going back to delve his tongue into the other’s mouth. “I want to make you feel good; I want to do things that no one else can.” He said and added a third finger. “I want to be yours.”

Jack huffed at the feeling, mouth parted from kissing, but the being’s words made him pause his movement. He moved his left hand to cup the being’s cheek, leaning their foreheads together as they breathed the same air.

“I’ll tell you this again and again… this is for both of us. You don’t have to focus on just me; I want you to be happy too, angel.” The brunet murmured.

“I know.” The being murmured back. “It’s the thought that _I’m_ the one giving you this kind of pleasure... and only me. That’s what makes me happy.”

Jack gasped as the fingers twisted inside of him, feeling his cock twitch, and looked into half-lidded green eyes.

“Well, if that’s what you want…” He said softly, reaching back to pull the being’s hand away, then lifted his hips up as he used the being’s shoulders to balance himself. “Then show me.”

Anti lined himself up, one hand on the brunet’s hip, then pushed inside. He moved his other hand to hold onto the brunet’s ass again and gave him time to adjust.

Jack let out a quiet moan, grip tightening on the other’s shoulders, and touched their noses together.

“My angel…” He said with a small smile, lifting his hips up lightly before bringing them back down again.

They shared heavy breaths and soft moans as the being started a rhythm, giving slow thrusts as he helped keep the brunet steady. The human felt himself ease into the movement, feeling warm and safe in the other’s lap, and leaned his head down to rest it against the being’s shoulder. He felt the being speed up after a few moments, the hands on him helping to add more of that nice sensation as he was lifted higher and brought down with more force. The being had easy access to his neck and started to bite lightly against the skin, tongue brushing against him causing the brunet to tilt his head more to the side. The being kissed his cheek lightly and he smiled.

“You feel so good…” The brunet murmured as their eyes met, blinking slowly.

Anti hummed and started to move his hips up more to meet with the other, cock sliding deeper as the human gasped and moaned more.

“I wanna hear you more.” The being purred, speeding up the movements a little more.

Jack closed his eyes as he felt his legs start to shake slightly, relying on the being more to keep the pace as he felt his strength start to falter.

“T-then you’re doin’ the… ah… the right thing.” He panted and glanced down to see their stomachs getting smeared with pre.

He then felt the spark of energy between them like before, warmth coursing under his skin, but there was something else this time, something different that caused the brunet to draw in a sharp breath as he hid his face against the other’s shoulder.

“O-oh fuck… what… what are you-“

The being cut him off with a deep thrust, sending another spark of energy with it along with that different feeling that seemed to fill the brunet completely. Jack no longer tried to hold himself up as he rested his weight against the other, mouth left open as he let out embarrassingly loud sounds, and the being readjusted his grip.

“I’m giving you what you wanted.” The being replied, a soft laugh at the end, though his voice was soft signaling that Jack wasn’t the only one getting out of breath. “Is it too much?”

“ _No_ , no, don’t you dare stop.” The brunet answered, giving in to the feeling as his mind struggled to keep any type of comprehensible thought. “Don’t… stop.”

The energy between them buzzed, bodies moving together, and the brunet felt as his cock was pressed between their stomachs, hot and pulsing with each movement. He choked out a moan as he came between them, feeling the waves of pleasure that coursed through him. He moved his hands to rest behind the being’s back, arms loosely over his shoulders, but was surprised when Anti pushed him down to lay on his back, still moving inside of him.

“Wha…?” Jack said as looked up at the being above him, eyes half open.

“Didn’t you tell me not to stop?” The being asked with a small smile and the human groaned, bringing his legs up to lock them around the being’s waist.

“Oh, y-you ass.”

The brunet pressed his head back against the pillow, body still sensitive from before, and his hands dropped down to rest against the blankets underneath him. The being leaned forward, placing delicate kisses along the human’s neck as he slowed down the rhythm.

“Hey, love…” The being murmured softly. “Think you can come again… for me?”

Jack huffed but smiled through each breath.

“You owe me another bath.” He responded and the being pressed a kiss against his lips.

“Bubbles too?” Anti asked as well, one of his hands reaching between their stomachs, touching the other.

“All the… the fuckin’ bubbles.” The brunet panted.

The being wasn’t far off himself, only taking a few more moments before he pressed in and came inside the other. The human felt the warmth, weight of the other over him as the being’s hand was moving as well, and he reached his own hand up to hold the being’s hair as their lips met. The brunet moaned through the kiss as the being tightened his grip and led the human through another release.

The two of them stayed still to catch their breaths, pressing their foreheads together as they closed their eyes. The brunet felt his mind start to drift off, too tired to want to do much else as his body felt distantly fuzzy but warm. The being continued to place soft kisses against him, eventually pulling out as well, and gently ran a hand across his cheek.

“So… would you be wanting that bath now or…?” He asked quietly and Jack turned his head to the side to lay on the pillow further.

“Mmm… you gotta… do all the work.” The brunet replied sleepily, not opening his eyes.

The being chuckled warmly and Jack felt as the weight lifted off of him, briefly thinking it was colder without the other there, then heard as the being turned the water for the bath on.

Without any further thought, he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *stares up at ceiling*  
> Am I doing this right? Is this how to write the smut? I can’t judge myself.
> 
> I didn’t end up putting this line in but:  
> A: Is this what all humans do to try to cheer someone up?  
> J: No, you just got lucky.


	13. The Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aha, ya get it? Calm before... the storm... chapter titles? Gosh I didn't realize the last chapter was updated in January afzdscg
> 
> Almost done though! One more chapter left! I was cheering myself on while writing this one like "look at all these words you're writing!!"
> 
> Edited: Ver 2 (added small scene)

Jack was sitting in the meeting room with Mark and Felix beside him. The room didn’t have any tables; it was only rows of chairs with a pedestal up front for whoever was speaking, but it still felt like a serious meeting. Looking around the room, Jack could see the faces of other agents he doesn’t see often, some he wasn’t even sure of their names, and almost half the room was filled. Not every agent was here, some having their own work to tend to and others didn’t work on the same field as Jack and the others, but it seemed everyone else who was here consisted of all the agents who did outside work, those who were assigned the jobs that required them to leave and put their life on the line. If they were going to leave on one big mission, this would be the team to do it.

There were hushed whispers and murmuring, no one quite sure what was going on and what was so important, but the boss had called them all in. Jack, Mark, and Felix had all agreed that it was probably going to be about Mil and his team, though. Felix had sent in the report explaining the situation of their recent mission at Primary and how Mil was using human life to create technological forces. It was after that when they received a message from the boss to meet in the meeting room where they found the other agents waiting as well.

The report Felix sent also noted that Mark brought a dog from the enemy’s headquarters, but they were sure the boss wouldn’t have ordered everyone together for that.

“You’re probably going to get off free because we have more important matters to deal with.” Felix said with a huff. “We can’t worry about a dog when our lives are in danger from… whatever the hell Mil is trying to do.”

“I’m fine with that.” Mark nodded. “And Chica is a good girl, I’m sure everyone is going to love her.”

“You two are like opposites.” Jack sighed as he looked over at Felix. “You’re more focused on work.” Then he looked over at Mark. “And you’re more focused on… a dog.”

“Hey, I focus on work too, but sometimes you need to think happy thoughts so you don’t feel trapped in all the darker thoughts.”

The others stared at him, not expecting to hear that, and the raven-haired man just shrugged.

Felix was about to make a comment until they heard the soft thudding of familiar shoes. They all recognized the sound, knowing the boss wore wedge boots that tapped the ground like that, and as they turned their heads, they saw the boss walk in, black dress pants, purple blouse, and black jacket with one button in the front. Her hair was tied up in a bun, a mixture of blondes and light browns, and she had a frown as she stepped up to the podium. This was Marzia, the leader of Eclipse, and seeing her confirmed everyone’s thoughts that whatever this meeting was about was important.

She looked through the crowd, finding Jack and the other two, and asked a silent question. The three of them nodded, knowing she was asking a final time if the report they sent in was true, and with that, she started the meeting. She read the report Felix sent in out loud to the others, hearing quiet gasps and mutters once more, then asked for Felix and the other two to step up to the front and tell them what happened.

The three of them looked at one another, all frowning slightly, but they got up and stood behind the podium as they spoke. They took turns explaining what they found the last few months relating to the Maker Project, nothing too alarming, until their arrival at the main base. They wouldn’t be able to sneak in again; they barely had time to find any information before they would get caught as trespassers, but the information they did have was more than enough to prove Mil and his team were dangerous and needed to be dealt with now.

Someone asked if they were sure this was real and Jack answered by saying he knew someone on the inside. There were comments about getting that person to shut down the organization since he was connected to it, but the brunet shook his head and explained he wasn’t an agent and couldn’t do much on his own regardless.

There was a small discussion about the beings that Mil was creating, the ones that required human life, but many didn’t seem to believe it.

“There’s a difference between plans to do this and actually doing this.” One man scoffed, causing the brunet to frown.

“This is real, Mil really is sacrificing humans for this.”

“What, have you seen one with your own eyes before?” The man added, feeling smug, and Jack stared at him with a cold gaze.

“Yes.”

The room went quiet, no one knowing how to respond to that, and Jack continued by explaining how Mil didn’t have the being he made anymore, it’s no longer a threat, but they need to act quickly to prevent him from trying again.

It was a tiring meeting, the team there for what felt like hours, but they needed to come up with a plan. Jack had texted Robin, grateful that the man had put his number in the brunet’s phone, and the man had given him a date for when Mil would be at the base. The best way to end this once and for all is to take down the man leading it.

They eventually came up with a plan; they’d leave at nightfall three days from now, when Mil would be present. Before then, they would prepare everything they might need, having Jack, Mark, and Felix do their best to think of anything that might be useful since they were the most familiar with the situation.

Everyone was anxious, no one truly prepared for the confrontation, and Jack found himself lying awake at night. Anti would lay with him, trying to reassure him that it would be alright, but they were both worried.

“I’ve never dealt with anything this… serious before.” Jack sighed.

“But I’ll be with you.” Anti murmured. “And Felix and Mark. Those other agents too.”

It was true; Marzia was sending in everyone who was gathered in the meeting room. They were going to shut down the entire building, stopping everything that was going on there, though their priority was to find Mil. Even Marzia was going to work on this mission; she would be watching the monitors with Felix, giving orders and keeping an eye on everyone.

Anti told him he needed to rest, he’d need to be at his best when it was time to go, and the brunet sighed as he closed his eyes to go to sleep.

 

…

 

Jack could feel his heart racing, staring at the building of the enemy’s headquarters as he waited for the signal. They were surrounding the building, hiding out of sight for now, but once everyone was in position, they were going to break in. Felix had told the group how the base locked all the entrances as soon as there was an intruder, so they’d all need to get in at the same time before an alarm was set off. A few agents were positioned by a window, ready to break the glass, while others were by the front entrance, and some like Jack by the side.

They waited, breaths steady, fingers resting on the gun in their hands, then they heard Marzia speak through their earpieces.

“Alright.” She said, voice calm. “Everyone is in position. Ready in three… two… one… _go_.”

It was a rush of motion after that, sounds of glass breaking and doors bursting open through the earpiece as everyone made their way inside. There was shouting, a few shots of gunfire, and alarms ringing throughout the room. Jack didn’t encounter much resistance on his side, as it seemed most of the people he came across were scientists without weapons or skills to fight. They were afraid, many running or putting their hands in the air when Jack ran into the room they were in, but for now he decided to leave them be as he continued looking for Mil.

Then the whole building went dark, everything shutting down, and the doors were stuck closed. There were worried voices over the earpieces, Felix and others behind the scenes muttering about a lockdown.

“They changed their system from before.” Felix grumbled. “Nothing will budge.”

There were others throwing out ideas, some looking for other ways to get through the building besides doors, and Jack tried to pry the door open in the room he was trapped in. Then the alarms overhead turned off, leaving the building quiet, and as the agents paused and asked if someone had done that, the building’s lights turned on and unlocked the doors.

Jack felt his phone buzz in his pocket, taking it out to see and text.

“I got your back.” It read and the brunet smiled.

 _”Robin’s here!”_ Anti exclaimed, seeing the text as well.

“I told you I had a man on the inside.” Jack smirked as he talked through the earpiece and other agents made relieved comments.

Jack continued moving forward, anticipation rising each time he entered a new room without seeing the boss, each second passing while he’s still in the building. One of these rooms is it, but he never knew what was hiding behind each door. There were a few gunshots fired at him, though it seemed the other agents had dealt with the others who were armed.

“He’s here! I-“ The voice cut off, but Jack recognized it as Mark’s voice.

“Mark? Where are you?”

“North of your position, Jack!” Someone had replied, another person working alongside Felix, and the brunet quickly started running. He started to panic, not knowing which room up ahead would be the one, but a loud blast caught his attention and he turned his head at a hallway. He saw large doors leading to a room, knowing the blast came from there, and as he rushed to the door, another person turned the corner on the other side of the hallway and stopped when they saw Jack.

It was Robin.

The two of them looked at one another, nodding once before they reached the doors and stepped up together as the doors slide open.

The first thing they saw was Mark at the other side of the room with a large table between them, wiping blood from his mouth as an arm of his jacket was ripped and dripping blood down to his hand. He was still standing, breathing out puffs of air as he glared at another man to the right. Robin seemed to have stiffened up at that, staring with wide eyes at the man, and Jack recognized him from the video call he and Mark saw during one of their earlier missions. He was a bigger man in a black suit, looking a bit older as well with his black hair starting to grey, large eyebrows lifting up in slight surprise, though he didn’t appear to be shocked.

“Ah, so you’re the traitor.” The man hummed, stating it like he was reading a note, and he pointed the gun in his hands at the two of them before firing.

Jack had grabbed Robin’s arm and pulled him to the side before either of them could get hit, but whatever gun Mil had was not normal. It looked almost comical, like a weapon someone would see in a video game, with a larger barrel at the end and blue orb-like additions around in, pulsing with energy. Jack looked back at the door to see it look burnt, sparks jumping out from the sides as it powered down, and a faint worry told Jack it might be broken. That’s not something Robin nor the other agents would be able to open now.

“I should’ve known.” The man continued, not worried with the new addition of the two men to the room.

Glancing at Mark, it appeared that the raven-haired man had lost his gun as well.

“Your work was quite remarkable.” Mil said to Robin, voice complimentary. “I had such high hopes for you, but then after our experiment, you weren’t quite the same.”

“You killed him.” Robin protested, hurt in his voice. “You killed an innocent person; you’ve killed more than that! That’s not right!”

“Progress requires sacrifice!” Mil boasted. “The restrictions that are put on us hold us back! If we work beyond those, we can accomplish what people can only dream about!”

“This isn’t a dream, this is a _nightmare_!”

“I was hoping you would be able to understand.” The boss sighed. “That’s why I let you stay. I wanted to give you a chance to realize the potential you had, but if this is how you are, then you are no longer of use to me. You let these guys in, so you will be removed just like them.”

He pointed the strange gun at the two of them as they were trapped between the broken door and table, and the gun whirred to life to fire another shot. Jack had grabbed Robin once more, preparing to shove the two of them to the ground and hopefully under the table, but a different current of energy, one the brunet was familiar with, entered the room and Anti appeared before them.

The surprise gave Anti enough time to reach the gun before Mil could process what had happened and the being put a hand on the barrel, energy coursing through it as the gun snapped and shorted out. Anti jumped back as the gun sparked, glaring at the man in black, and Jack stepped to the side to have a clear view of the man as he pointed his own gun at him.

Robin had turned to the door, loud knocks banging on the broken object as someone on the other side tried to get in. There were voices all jumbled together through the earpiece, those watching on the monitors with Felix all frantically asking about the being suddenly appearing in the room, and Fe’s faint voice trying to calm them down. Jack blocked out those voices, though, focusing only on those in the room as the man in black stared at Anti with wide eyes, recognition slowly showing on his face, and the brunet glanced at his gun. He didn’t want to shoot Mil; he didn’t know if there was something else up his sleeve like that strange gun, and he didn’t like hurting people in the first place. There were four people against one though; Mil had the disadvantage.

Looking at Mark, it seemed he was getting too tired to do much else, blood trickling down creating a small puddle under his feet, and he wasn’t focused on much. He gave the brunet a small smile, telling him he’d be alright, so the brunet turned back to Mil and frowned as the older man chuckled lightly.

“Well… look who it is. You came back home.” Mil smiled and Anti scoffed at him.

“This is _not_ my home.”

“This is where you were created!” The man grinned, arms moving out to the side to gesture to the building. “I am your creator! I gave you a gift!” He then glanced between Anti and Jack, seeing their matching appearances, and he hummed. “But I see this man has something to do with your corruption.”

“Corruption?” Anti frowned, glaring more, and the man sighed.

“You’re tainted. You were born to be the perfect being, unkillable, a perfect human replica, but without the weak human characteristics, like affection. You were going to be great, you _were_ great, but you succumbed to human flaws. That was the one weakness that came with using a human, but an artificial creation can’t adapt on its own.”

“I’m not weak.” Anti growled, energy sparking at his hands, and Jack looked over at him with a frown, feeling bad for him.

It must be weird, confronting the person who had… killed him… arguing over what was right. It felt odd, something Jack wasn’t supposed to be watching, but he wasn’t going to leave Anti alone with him. He wouldn’t let Mil hurt Anti again.

“Ah, yes, you can still be salvaged, but first, we need to get rid of the person who filled your head with that _poison_.”

Jack was still looking over at Anti, everything feeling slow as he turned his head towards Mil to see the man pulling out a gun from his jacket.

There was a shot ringing through the air, bullet racing forwards, and Jack was too slow.

Distracted again. When will he learn?

There was something hitting his side, a dull pain, except… that wasn’t a bullet. Blonde hair was in front of him, pushing him out of the way, and he fell to the floor by the table.

The slow feeling disappeared, the brunet watching as Robin took the bullet for him, and the blonde man fell to the ground next to him. Jack felt his breathing pick up, eyes wide as he saw Robin bleeding from the wound in his chest, and he quickly ripped a piece of his jacket to cover the wound. It was in the right side of the man’s chest, not the left, not where the heart was. He needs to focus, not panic; Robin could still be okay.

“Well…” The blonde man huffed, being moved onto his back by the brunet. “This hurts…”

“You think?” Jack replied, trying not to sound afraid as his eyes teared up. “But… why… why’d you do that?”

“Because…” He said, smiling softly. “I may have taken a life… but now I had the chance to save a life.”

“Robin.” Jack sniffled, looking to the side where Mark had crawled under the table to make sure they were alright.

A thud made them look towards Mil and Anti, watching as Anti had twisted the older man's wrist causing the man to drop the gun, but there was a spark where Anti had grabbed him. The being winced as he pulled his hand back, his coding flickering at his fingers, and the older man laughed.

"I am your creator! Do you think I wouldn't have thought to deal with those who went rogue?!"

Jack had pulled Robin under the table more to get him away from the fight, unsure as to what he should do himself, and watched with wide eyes. Anti glanced at his hand for a moment, frowning with a heavy breath, but he glared at the older man before rushing forwards again. The man grinned, putting a hand up defensively, and he grabbed the being's elbow once he got close enough, then moved his other hand to the side of the being's head.

Anti yelled out, glitching away backwards as his form started to resemble his coding side more, and Mil's smile widened.

"I thought you would've been better than that. You were created to cause destruction, yet here you are being the one to fall."

Anti was breathing heavily, one hand going up to touch the side of his head that Mil had burned with his touch, something on the man's hands like electricity, and memories of his past when others had hurt him before to keep him in line resurfaced. His own hands started to focus more of his own energy, sparking more as he anger built up, and he shook his head.

"No more. I won't let you do this to me anymore; I won't let you hurt me anymore." Anti growled, hands balling into fists.

Mil put his hands up again, expecting the being to charge at him once more, but Anti glitched out of sight, appearing behind him as he hit the side of the older man's head. The man jolted a bit, a snap being heard as the objects around his hands fizzled, and the being glitched in front of him as he fell backwards, hitting a counter behind him. Anti picked up the gun lying on the floor, growling, and the man coughed as he looked up at Anti standing over him with the gun pointed at him. He grinned, teeth showing widely as he stared at the being.

“Go on then!” He said loudly. “Shoot! It’s in your coding; it’s _who you are!_ ”

Jack and the others watched, unable to do anything about it, and the brunet could see the anger in the being’s form. Anti still had trouble controlling his emotions and for a moment, Jack was afraid of what he might do. Then Anti looked back at him, eyes stern and he had his finger on the trigger, but when he turned back to Mil, he only frowned and moved his finger away.

“No.” He said, voice showing he made up his mind. “I’m not like you.”

Mil laughed softly, leaning back against the counter as he turned his head to the side.

“A tainted human.”

Anti looked down at him, putting the gun away, and huffed.

“I’m more human than you.”

Mil didn’t respond, knowing he had lost, and he closed his eyes. There were voices on the other side of the door, Jack picking up something form the earpieces about them trying to blow the doors open, but tuned them out once more when Robin groaned.

“Hang in there; it’s gonna be okay.” The brunet tried to reassure.

“Is it over?” The blonde man asked, bringing a hand up to touch Jack’s hand over the wound. “God, ever since that day I’ve been trying to fix everything, always blaming myself, wanting to make up for what I was a part of. But it’s done… I can rest easy now… that bastard isn’t going to kill anyone else.”

“You can go back to your old life, be happy again.”

“Hah… haven’t seen my old life in a long time… but after all of this… I don’t think I can.” The blonde man hummed. “But Jack…” He added, and the brunet put his other hand over Robin’s. “Take care of Anti for me… I know you’ve been doing just that… but now he finally has a chance to live a normal life without this place haunting him.”

“Robin…” The brunet murmured, watching as the blonde man closed his eyes, but Mark put a hand on his shoulder.

“He’s still breathing. Keep pressure on the wound and we’ll take him back to Eclipse.”

The brunet nodded, wiping his face as he took a steady breath. There was a muffled burst behind them, making the two of them look back at the door as the other agents were trying to break in, and eventually the doors opened. Other agents ran inside, two hurrying over to Mil and cuffing his hands behind his back, one staring suspiciously at Anti, and another kneeling by Robin and the others asking what happened. They helped pick up Robin, carefully explaining how they were going to carry him back outside to a car, then mentioned how Mark needed medical treatment as well.

Mil was led out first, three agents keeping an eye on him as they stepped through the busted doors, then Mark followed before Jack and the other agent carried Robin together. Anti followed behind, stepping over the wreck, but paused to look back at the now empty room.

The Maker Project had finally come to an end.

It’s finally over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Next chapter will be the last one that puts this story to a close. I'll do my best not to take 3 months to update again; sorry about that!
> 
> And I never did give Mil a name- he's just a dude without a moral compass... or morals at all really; striving for technological advancement without fear of consequences.


	14. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to make a note here that ch. 13 has been edited! I added a small scene during the fight and it makes me feel a little better about it, but it ends the same.
> 
> Also, because there's more end notes, I'll add the double meaning of the story's title here!  
>  _Hacking (adj.) Life- relates to how Jack hacks into systems for a living; he lives a hacking life._  
>  _Hacking (v.) Life- relates to how Anti is essentially an immortal being that has hacked the way of life and doesn’t follow the normal rules; he hacks life._  
>  _Jack is hacking life._  
>  _Anti is hacking life._  
>  _Two different meanings, same phrase._  
>  _This is Jack’s story, but this is also Anti’s story._

Jack quietly opened the door to one of the medical rooms in Eclipse, stepping carefully inside as he approached the bed where Robin was resting. Anti was sitting in a chair next to him, not having left the blonde’s side since he was first brought to the room, and the brunet murmured a soft hello.

Anti wanted to make sure Robin would be okay, feeling a sense of friendship for the blonde man who knew who he was before the incident. Robin had been there for a few days, the bullet removed and wound stitched up, so now he was just resting. The doctors here wanted him to stay in place, not wanting him to add any stress to the area, and he was slowly recovering.

Marzia had visited after Robin was feeling well enough to think clearly and the four of them would talk. Robin explained what happened to Anti and the Maker Project, just as he explained to Jack and the being before, so Marzia would know as well. She watched in silence, occasionally nodding her head to show she was listening, then Jack and Anti talked about their time together working at Eclipse.

After everything was explained, she would ask a few questions, but she was calm. She seemed to understand everything that they went through, sensing the bonds they had together now. Robin and Anti had both helped to take down Mil, ending the Maker Project, and she could tell neither of them had lied.

“I know you trust Anti.” Marzia said softly, looking towards Jack. “However, you must know that many of the other agents here do not. I’ve ordered them to keep out of this room and to leave it be while Robin is recovering, but this must be discussed with everyone here eventually.”

“Anti isn’t an enemy, though.” The brunet frowned. “He can help us, he’s _been_ helping Eclipse.”

“I understand.” Marzia nodded. “But you had even explained during the meeting before we infiltrated Primary that the beings created like Anti are dangerous.” She then turned to Anti. “I don’t mean to be rude, but how do we know you won’t turn on us? Even on accident; how do we know someone can’t hack into your coding? Is that a possibility? And if someone were to kidnap you, would they have all of the information you have, including everything about our organization? Our agents are trained to keep silent, regardless of what may happen, to protect everyone else here, but what if someone were to take advantage of your coding side? We just don’t know enough about you to safely make a decision yet.”

Anti looked down at his hands, unable to answer any of those questions, and even Jack hadn’t thought of that.

“I know this is hard. Decisions like this are some of the toughest things I have to do, but the safety of everyone here is always my priority as the leader.”

“I understand…” Jack murmured, looking down himself.

“I don’t mean to be the bearer of bad news here while you already have enough to think about, one of you still recovering from a gunshot, but I thought you should have some time to think about what to say when we talk with everyone else.”

“Yeah… thank you.”

Marzia had stood up after that, walking over to the door as the familiar tapping of her shoes hit the floor, but she paused as she opened the door.

“However, I do have a bit of good news.” She said, smiling softly as she looked back at them. “Everyone’s moods have lightened up since they met a certain someone. I believe one of the storage rooms I kept trying to get someone to clean up had suddenly not only been cleaned, but refurbished into some type of indoor dog park.”

Jack chuckled lightly, thinking about Mark and Chica, and he was relieved to hear that at least Chica would be alright. Mark was right; it seemed everyone did love her.

…

They made more space in the meeting room, chairs all filled as others leaned against the wall. Jack was tired, already drained from talking with Mark and Felix for hours about Anti, and he sat on the raised floor by the podium. Anti was sitting next to him, arms resting on his knees, and many of the other agents were giving him odd looks. Maybe they were curious, maybe some found it odd that he looked like the brunet, but they were staring none the less. They had talked about whether or not Anti should be in the room during this, but they came to the decision that if they wanted to trust the being in the future, then they had to trust him now. Whatever was said would be said in front of him too.

Marzia had walked into the room to start the meeting, moving the podium off to the side as she set a chair down there instead, and sat down with one leg over the other. As soon as she motioned for the discussion to start, someone immediately argued that Anti wasn’t human and couldn’t be trusted.

“He’s just as human as you are.” Jack had countered, glaring harshly though he told himself not to raise his voice.

He didn’t want to fight; he wanted to talk about this calmly.

“He’s in a different type of body, but he still has thoughts and emotions like us. He was born a human, lived a life just like us, and Mil took that away from him. He shouldn’t be punished for something that wasn’t his fault.” The brunet continued.

Robin had joined the meeting as well, sitting by the brunet as white bandages peeked out from the collar of his shirt, and he talked about his own experiences with Anti before the incident. Before he was changed.

“He was a normal person.” Robin murmured. “Just like you and me. He’d tell me stories all the time about his life, like how he had a German Shepard named Toffee. He was a clumsy person, so he’d knock things over on accident or drop things and Toffee would think it was a game and run off with the objects.”

Jack saw some of the faces in the crowd soften up at that, probably thinking of their own pets they had to leave behind when they joined the agency. Maybe that’s why they took a liking to Chica so much; it was a glimpse of a past they used to have. A life before dangerous missions and tough decisions became their normal.

Felix talked about when he first found out about Anti; he had panicked at first, but he had seen the being’s coding for himself.

“We’ve been on a few missions together, even if I didn’t know he was there.” Felix said. “He’s been here for a long while now, none of you knowing, and he’s the reason why we solved this case so quickly. He probably saved us too. I saw that gun Mil had; if Anti wasn’t there to short it out… then who knows what might’ve happened.”

The problem of someone taking Anti and getting Eclipse’s information out of him came up once more, and though Jack was ready to counter that argument like he had practiced with Mark and Felix before, someone else cut in first.

“Someone could forget their phone.” The person said and Jack found the source of the voice, one of the newer members of Eclipse, who was a younger brunet with specks of blue left in his hair. “I mean… I did it once. I set my phone down when I was hacking into a computer, someone entered the room and my instinct was to hide, then I quickly left before they could find me. Left my phone on the table. They could’ve taken it and easily cracked it to get all the information on there.” The man shrugged. “Of course I went back to get it and it was fine but…” He then looked over at Anti. “You can like… go _into_ technology, right? People are talking about you getting kidnapped, but can you even be kidnapped in the first place? And if we’re still worried about that, then why don’t we just have him work from the base like Felix does?”

The man next to him then spoke up, nodding with a hum.

“A lot of you all are narrowing in on the negatives, but aren’t recognizing all the positives there are to this. And even humans have their negatives as well. But this guy… Anti… he has abilities that can really help us, skills that we can use to get our jobs done faster, _save lives_ faster. He’s already here, already helping us, and what do you suggest we do if we decide we don’t want him here? Are we just gonna kick him out? Expect him to just forget about Eclipse? You all should know that’s a terrible idea. He’s already proved himself, but if you don’t think so, then why don’t we give him the chance to do so again now that we know he’s here?”

Jack found himself surprised, not expecting others to stand up for Anti, and he was getting strangely emotional.

“How do we know he won’t turn on us?” The same man who argued against Anti said.

“How do we know you won’t turn on us?” The younger man with specks of blue hair said, turning around in his chair. “How do we know any of us won’t do something like that? None of us know what will be in our future, but one thing we do have now is trust. We have to trust in each other. If we don’t even have that… then Eclipse is doomed to fall apart.”

There were murmurs spread across the room, many agents talking among themselves and thinking it over, but Jack could see them soon nodding in agreement. Someone spoke up to ask Anti a question, curious about his abilities, and the being blinked in surprise before he started explaining some of the things he could do. Jack chimed in once in a while when they started talking about the missions they’ve been on, smiling as he mentioned how lucky he was when Anti had his back and how helpful the coded being was.

Another agent started talking about a mission they had gone on, sighing in frustration when they mentioned the struggles they had, and Anti tilted his head as he explained what he could’ve done. Another person perked up, asking about a hypothetical situation, and Anti answered as people looked on with wide eyes and a few “woahs”. They were starting to see the positives.

There were still a few skeptical people, the one guy who was arguing against the being before still frowning with his arms crossed, but it looked like the tension was starting to fade. They talked about what would happen if Anti were to join Eclipse officially, what would change, what should still be the same, and Jack could feel a spark of hope within him. He turned to Anti, watching as the being looked at him with an expression of gentle surprise at the whole situation, and he felt his eyes getting a little watery. He was so worried about this day, they both were, but… it looked like it was going to be okay.

Jack faintly heard someone ask if he had anything else to add to the discussion, still focused on Anti rather than paying attention to the others, but he smiled softly and lifted a hand to cup the being’s cheek. He didn’t say anything as he leaned forward to capture the being’s lips in a kiss in front of the others, feeling the being return the gesture. When they leaned back, they stayed facing one another, eyes showing warmth, and the brunet sighed lightly.

“I love him.” He murmured, voice soft but sure.

When the agents took their job at Eclipse, they all had to accept the fact that they may never find love. The only relationships they could have, friendship or otherwise, could only exist between the others of their organization. Love was something everyone had quietly hoped for, whether they voiced it aloud or not.

And the room was quiet.

…

Robin and Anti were sitting on the couch in Jack’s room, the blonde man having been moved there for the time being after he no longer needed to stay in the medical room. Jack was happy to have the other man staying with him and the blonde would often tell stories about Anti’s past, most of them stories that the being had shared himself when he was human. Anti would watch with curious eyes like a clueless child, wanting to know about the part of him he didn’t remember, and would often ask questions about almost every detail.

It was calm and Jack didn’t have any missions to get to, having earned a well-deserved break after everything. Sometimes Mark and Felix would visit and the five of them would talk or watch movies together. Anti’s situation was still being discussed, a decision still needing to be made, and they were all anxious. They tried not to think too much about it, knowing it wouldn’t help to get worried, so they would find ways to relax or have fun during the movie nights. Sometimes they would spot Marzia talking to others, guessing she wanted to hear their opinion without the peer pressure of the whole organization listening in, and Jack wanted to trust that it would be okay.

One day, as Robin and Jack were sitting together in the brunet’s room, the blonde man smiled as he brought up different news.

“I was offered a job here.” The blonde said.

“Here?” Jack asked, eyes going wide. “As in Eclipse here?”

“Yep.” The man nodded, chuckled when he saw the brunet break into a grin. “I mean, I _do_ know about Eclipse’s existence now.”

The two of them laughed as the blonde made an exaggerated shrug, though Jack made sure to share his excitement at the idea. Robin explained how he gratefully accepted the job, knowing it would’ve been hard for him to try to go back to his old life, and he liked the idea of working here in order to help others.

“I’m not going to be an agent like you or Anti or anything like that.” The blonde said. “I’ll be staying at the base working on equipment and designing new things. Like a scientist kind of. It’ll be like my old job except this time… this time I’ll be doing good.” He smiled.

Jack leaned forward to hug him, happy to hear that Robin was a new ally to Eclipse, and he felt words rush out of his mouth saying how he could show the blonde around and explain how everything worked. Anti had heard the news and was just as enthusiastic, waiting to give the blonde a hug too, and it made the brunet feel better about Anti’s situation as well.

Then, as if on que, there was a knock at the door.

Jack got up to answer it, thinking it was Mark and Felix at first, but saw Marzia standing in front instead. The other two men were there behind her, though they appeared uneasy, and Jack was able to figure out that Marzia was here to tell them the decision. He stepped to the side to let them in, knowing Mark and Felix wanted to be here to hear it as well, and they stood together in the small room as they waited for the answer.

Anti stood up to stand in front of her, expression neutral, though Jack could tell he was just as nervous as the rest of them, and Marzia stared at him with an expressionless look. It was quiet, the seconds ticking by serving to make them all the more afraid, then the leader of Eclipse smiled softly.

“You can stay.”

The rest of them felt their shoulders relax as they were flooded with relief, all smiling as they let the worry that built up during the past few days finally fade. Marzia and Anti had shook hands before Jack pulled the being over for a hug, tears escaping his eyes as he held the other tightly. Marzia mentioned a few things while the other five of them in the room settled down, though it was mostly about how Anti needed to have the responsibilities of every other agent here, such as being prepared to work on a moment’s notice, and to not use his abilities to mess with the other agents. She explained how a few people were worried since Anti could access and hide in the tech here that he would mess with their personal files. Anti assured her that he wouldn’t, he hasn’t done anything like that before while he was here either, and she nodded.

“You know what this calls for?” Mark perked up, a goofy grin on his face. “A welcoming ceremony!”

Before Jack or Anti could voice their opinion, or anything for that matter, the raven-haired man quickly ushered the others out of the room, though he was polite with Marzia and didn’t drag her out of the room like he did with Felix and Robin.

“We can’t have you hearing about your own welcoming ceremony! It has to be a surprise!” Mark said as his reasoning.

“But- wait, what about me?” Jack tried to call out before Mark could close the door on them because this would be for Anti, not him.

“Can’t trust that Anti won’t get it out of you!” Mark answered in a rushed manner, barely adding a space between his words, then closed the door quickly once everyone else was out.

Jack and Anti stood in silence for a moment, staring at the door as their minds processed what just happened, then the coded being tilted his head to the side.

“What about Robin?” He asked and the brunet hummed as he remembered that Robin was a new member too.

“Well... I suppose Robin will tell them if he wants?” Jack shrugged, confused about the whole situation.

They never had a welcoming ceremony for anyone else before, but this was Mark who liked doing silly things like that and Anti was different. 

“I guess you’re getting a welcoming ceremony.”

…

“Are you sure about this?” Jack asked, eyebrows knit together as he stared at himself in the mirror in his room.

Today was the day for Anti’s welcoming ceremony, which was still weird to think about, and Mark and Felix were with him helping him get dressed. Mark had insisted that he had to look his absolute best for this, saying how this would forever be an important day for Anti, and they should look nice for it. Mark and Felix were wearing nice suits as well, though a different style than the one Mark was making the brunet wear. Jack’s suit was grey, contrasting the black of the other men’s outfits, and he wore a silver tie around a white dress shirt and tucked under a grey vest. He felt a bit… overdressed for this. He had asked where Anti was, thinking the being should be the one who stands out more, and Mark answered that Anti was at Robin’s new room where the blonde was helping him get ready there.

Mark wouldn’t let him go into the meeting room either, as that’s where the ceremony was, and said that it would spoil the surprise if he saw how the room looked. Jack didn’t argue, he didn’t need to go in their anyway, but he did tell the raven-haired man how he seemed to be overdoing it. He asked if Marzia was alright with this, thinking she needed to approve of a ceremony taking place in the base, especially one that seemed to be as excessive as Mark was making it out to be, but Mark said he got an enthusiastic approval from her.

Jack fiddled with the tie, pursing his lips as he looked down at himself once everything was in place, and the other two men stepped up next to him to put an arm around his shoulders each. They looked at one another through the mirror and smiled at their reflections.

“I think we’re ready to be on our way, then, huh?” Mark said to the reflections, chuckling a bit.

“If you say so.” Jack huffed.

At this point he was just going along with whatever Mark was trying to do. The raven-haired man pat his shoulder, smile beaming as he turned around to lead the way out. Felix put a hand on the brunet’s back to usher him forwards, the three of them falling into a line with Mark leading and Felix behind. They walked through the halls of the living quarters, leading out to the dining hall, and that’s when Jack finally realized how quiet it was. He didn’t think everyone would go to this, would they? Each step leading to the meeting room was met with more silence, no one else around or working, and the brunet frowned lightly.

When they reached the meeting room, they stood in front of the closed doors and Mark placed a flat palm on one of them. He looked back at the brunet, his expression softening, then he pushed the doors open. Jack was met with the eyes of all the other agents watching him, all sitting in chairs on each side of the room with a row down the middle to walk through. They were all dressed up nicely like Mark and Felix, some having a bit of color to their outfits, and the walls were decorated with white flower garlands. There was a white aisle runner down the middle leading up to the podium in the front where Marzia was standing, smiling at them as well. Looking down a little, he saw Chica sitting next to her as well, a silver bow adorning the side of her collar.

Jack was confused, looking around at all the faces smiling at him and briefly wondered where he and the other two would sit since there didn’t seem to be any open seats, but Mark led them up to the front, him and Felix standing by the side next to Marzia and Chica where they left Jack in front. Mark pulled out a white flower from his front pocket, positioning it to rest on Jack’s jacket instead, and the brunet frowned as he was about to ask what was going on…

Then he realized.

“When we joined Eclipse…” Mark started saying as he fixed the flower on the brunet’s chest. “Our lives were removed from the world… we don’t have an identity, no name in any databases… we’re invisible.” He finished putting on the flower and stepped back to look at the brunet properly. “This isn’t a real wedding, none of us can have a proper one anyway, but… I thought it would be nice to give you the closest thing we can make. If you’re alright with it, that is.” Mark added, chuckling a bit as he looked to the side. “There are such things as surprise weddings but usually the groom is not the one who’s surprised.”

Jack felt his eyes widen, the surprise leaving him without words, and Mark continued.

“You’ll still be you and Anti will still be Anti, like I said before, this isn’t official, but… I wanted to do this for the two of you.”

Jack blinked, half of him wanting to laugh since this was absolutely something Mark would do, but the first thing he thought of was Anti.

“Does Anti know?” He asked, worried more for the being and wanting him to know what this means, regardless if its official or not.

“Robin explained it to him a few days ago. He was excited about the idea but he was actually worried about you. You talked about a wedding before, when we first met Anti while we were at the guest house, and you told him how people wait to ask until they’re sure and all that, so he wanted to wait for you on it.”

Jack remembered as Mark explained, remembered how Anti had asked right away that day about their own wedding, and Jack had blushed then. He was happy to hear that from the being, heart fluttering whenever Anti told him he wanted to stay with the brunet, but now… now it was different. He was actually standing in the room for a wedding, _his_ wedding, and Anti wanted to have it but wanted to wait for Jack as well. He felt his eyes start to tear up, emotions swirling around inside, and the more he thought about it, the more he knew he wanted this too.

He took a deep breath to calm his beating heart, finding himself at a loss for words again, and he nodded with a quivering smile as he tried to hide the tears threatening to fall. He took a few more calm breaths to compose himself, looking out towards the people once more and finding it even more special to see them all there as support. Maybe they wanted to be a part of something they wish they could have as well, but whatever the reason was, he was happy none the less.

His attention turned to the doors when he heard the soft creak of them opening and held his breath when he saw the two men step into the room. Robin was standing next to Anti, his suit mirroring that of Mark and Felix’s while Anti had his own grey suit. The being had a silver bow instead of a tie, green hair swept over to the right, his own white flower in the pocket of his suit, and Jack could see a hint of silver on the being’s left ear. The two of them walked down the aisle, Robin stepping over to the other side of Marzia once they reached the front, and Anti stood across from the brunet as they held each other’s hands.

“Hey.” Anti said softly and Jack could see now that the being wore a small flower earring.

“Hey.” Jack said back, thumbs rubbing over Anti’s hand where he could reach.

“I know this is kind of sudden… are you…”

“Yes.” Jack said, cutting him off since he knew what Anti was going to say. “I do.”

“Hey, we haven’t gotten to that part yet.” Marzia said behind the podium, earning a few laughs from the others.

“Sorry.” Jack said, chuckling softly, and the two grooms stood facing one another as Marzia started speaking.

It was lighthearted and fun, no one feeling too serious or stiff, and Jack was happy with it. He didn’t need any of the formalities, he was content with having everyone together like this; that was all he needed. Eclipse was his family.

When it was time for them to say their vows, neither of them had anything prepared, but it was just as perfect. They spoke whatever came to their minds, the truth that came straight from the heart, and Jack threw in a couple of little jokes with a smile. There were chuckles, a few comments from others, and Anti and Jack would mention things during the other’s turn. It felt relaxed, and in a way it kind of was like Anti’s welcoming ceremony; the people here were willing to give him a chance.

They reached the end of their vows, their hands still held together between the two of them, and Anti’s eyes softened as he looked to the other.

“You’re my forever.” He said softly, looking down to see their intertwined hands, and smiled lightly at them.

When he looked back up, Jack smiled back, mirroring the look, and gave a small nod.

“You’re my forever.” He responded, tone just as gentle, and there were quiet “awes” in the crowd, one Jack could hear distinctly as Mark.

They stepped closer to one another, inches apart, then both paused as they turned their heads over to Marzia, waiting.

“Alright.” She chuckled, waving her hand in a small motion for them to continue. “You may now kiss your love.”

So, as the leader of Eclipse, Marzia gave the couple her blessing, and from then on, Eclipse would recognize them as being together as the two of them finally kissed.

And Jack couldn’t have been happier.

…

Jack was sitting at one of the cool black tables, legs crossed, head resting lazily on one of his hands, in the organization’s headquarters located underground and off the radar. He worked for an intelligence and protection agency simply known as Eclipse that did undercover quests, bodyguard missions, and occasional hitman work if required.

Sitting next to him was Anti, his partner, smiling as he talked about a project he was helping Robin with. Jack nodded as he listening, focused on what the being was saying, when he heard a clanking sound that made him perk his head up and turn.

Mark, Felix, and Robin all set down trays that had their breakfast and scooted over to the two of them, greeting them with bright smiles and good mornings. Laughter filled the air as the five of them talked, Mark mentioning cute stories about Chica too as the golden dog bounded over to their table. Then Jack sat back a bit as he watched the others sitting together, smiles wide, expressions full of joy, and paused when he looked at Anti. The being turned to look at him, tilting his head in question when he noticed the brunet staring, and that caused the others to notice as they looked over at him as well.

“What are you thinking?” Mark asked with a chuckle.

“Ah, nothing much.” Jack replied, eyes staying on Anti. “Just… you’ve changed a lot since I first met you.” Anti pointed at himself in question as the brunet nodded warmly and continued. “I remember you used to not know what anything was and you had trouble understanding things. Even how you spoke was different but… you’ve changed since then… you’ve become more human… or rather you’ve learned how to be yourself. I guess I was thinking about how I was happy for you… happy that you get to be you.”

Anti made a soft “oh”, eyes widening slightly, then nodded back with a faint blush.

“Me too.” He replied and leaned over to rest his head on the brunet’s shoulder.

“Hey, you’ve changed too, Jack.” Mark said matter-of-factly as the brunet quirked an eyebrow up. “You used to be a lone wolf, always working by yourself, but look at us all now!” He said as he gestured his arms out to the five of them. “I can tell you’ve been happier since meeting Anti too, and I’m glad to see you smiling more.” It was Jack’s turn to blush as Felix made a hum in agreement. “And I think together the five of us make a pretty badass team!”

Anti chuckled beside Jack, the brunet huffing with a smile at that last statement, and Robin leaned forward to rest his chin on his hands propped up on elbows with laugh.

“I think we’ve all grown.” Robin said. “And we’ll continue to; continue to gain new experiences and learn as we go.”

The other four of them looked around at one another, nodding quietly until they all broke into laughter. Yeah, they’ve all grown since being here, but Jack was happy to be the guy he was today.

Then there was a pinging sound, heard multiple times at once, and they realized it was a notification for a new mission. Jack brought his left arm out in front as the holographic screen from the tech on his wrist appeared and the others scooted over to see. It was a brand new mission, unrelated to anything else they’ve done, and it showed that Jack, Anti, Mark, and Felix were all together for this one.

“Oh… I guess we’re getting back to work.” Jack huffed.

It was their first new job since dealing with Mil.

“Get to kick some ass with your husband.” Mark added as he leaned over to nudge Jack with his shoulder.

“My husband?” Jack said, raising an eyebrow before turning to Anti. “What do you think of that?”

“Sounds great.” Anti responded with grin, putting his hands on his hips.

They finished eating, all discussing the mission ahead of them while Robin brought up the project he was working on, saying it should be ready to test once they returned. Anti piped up at that, turning to Jack to explain how that was the project he was helping with, and the brunet was looking forward to it. He found himself watching the four of them once more, thinking back to all that’s happened.

Lone wolf… he remembered he used to be like that.

The others stood up, picking up their trays to put them away, and stopped after a few steps to look back at Jack and wait for him. He stood up then to follow, standing side by side as they started walking once more, and smiled lightly to himself.

He used to be like that… but not anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the wedding might seem sudden, but like it said, it was informal, its a way for Eclipse to recognize Anti as a person and that he and Jack are together. Kinda like "hey, Anti is new here, but we're going to give him a chance." It won't be until later that Jack finally buys a ring for them ;3
> 
> I want to thank all of you for reading to the end, it really means a lot to me, and thank you to all who gave kudos or commented because they honestly did make me feel better when writing. I struggled a lot with this story, but you all were very supportive and helped me to keep writing and get to the end c: I’ve definitely learned a lot from this and I’m going to continue working on improving so my stories can be better too!
> 
> These past few (I want to say three?) months I’ve actually been working on my next Janti story, but I went about it differently. I wanted to be calm and plan things out, taking what I learned from this story, and just taking a deep breath and being okay. I’ve gone back and edited so many things, putting a lot of thought into it, and I actually have all the chapters written ;u; I’m working on drawings for it too! But I want to thank all of you again, your support really means a lot. Thank you all for being here. There are times when I’ve reread comments and I’ll tear up again, just… thank you, and I hope you all enjoyed being here too.
> 
> My [tumblr](https://galaxykitty42.tumblr.com/)


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